Pathology Guide

Classifying the different subtypes of aphasia is difficult and has led to disagreements among experts. The localizationist model is the original model, but modern anatomical techniques and analyses have shown that precise connections between brain regions and symptom classification don’t exist. The neural organization of language is complicated; language is a comprehensive and complex behavior and it makes sense that it isn’t the product of some small, circumscribed region of the brain.
No classification of patients in subtypes and groups of subtypes is adequate. Only about 60% of patients will fit in a classification scheme such as fluent/nonfluent/pure aphasias. There is a huge variation among patients with the same diagnosis, and aphasias can be highly selective. For instance, patients with naming deficits (anomic aphasia) might show an inability only for naming buildings, or people, or colors. [6]

Aphasia usually results from lesions to the language centres of the brain, such as Broca’s area. These areas are almost always located in the left hemisphere, and in most people this is where the ability to produce and comprehend language is found. However, in a very small number of people, language ability is found in the right hemisphere. In either case, damage to these language areas can be caused by a stroke, traumatic brain injury, or other brain injury. Aphasia may also develop slowly, as in the case of a brain tumor or progressive neurological disease, e.g., Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. It may also be caused by a sudden hemorrhagic event within the brain. Certain chronic neurological disorders, such as epilepsy or migraine, can also include transient aphasia as a prodromal or episodic symptom.[citation needed] Aphasia is also listed as a rare side effect of the fentanyl patch, an opioid used to control chronic pain.[citation needed]

Zain-Din al Amidi was a blind scholar who lived in what is now Iraq in the fourteenth century. He is famous for inventing a system before braille that allowed him to study and recognize his books.

A number of systems have been devised for writing material that the blind can read by touch. While currently the Braille system is the most popular and some materials have been prepared in Moon type, historically there have been a large number of others:
Systems based on embossed Roman letters:
Valentin Haüy’s system, based on embossed Roman characters (in italic style)
James Gall’s “triangular alphabet,” using both capital and lower-case Roman letters, which was used in 1826 in the first embossed books published in English
Edmund Frye’s system (based on capital letters only)
John Alston’s system (also based on capital letters only)
Jacob Snider, Jr.’s system, using rounded letters similar to Haüy’s system, which was used in a publication of the Gospel of Mark in 1834, the first embossed book in the United States.
Samuel G. Howe’s Boston Line using lowercase angulat letters, influenced by Gall’s system but more closely resembling standard Roman letters
Julius Friedlander’s Philadelphia Line, using all capital letters, similar to Alston’s system, used at the Pennsylvania Institution for the Instruction of the Blind in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
William Chapin (also at the Pennsylvania Institution)’s system, combining the lowercase letters of the Boston Line with the capitals of the Philadelphia Line, forming the “combined system” (used by 1868 in books printed by N. B. Kneass, Jr.)
Systems based on arbitrary symbols:
Thomas Lucas’ system, based on shorthand and the phonetic principle
James Hatley Frere’s system, similar to Lucas’ in that it was based on shorthand, but written in a boustrophedon manner
New York Point, a system of points invented by William Bell Wait, that competed with braille for some time before braille won out

Night writing was a system of code that used symbols of twelve dots arranged as two columns of six dots embossed on a square of cardboard. It was designed by Charles Barbier in response to Napoleon’s demand for a code that soldiers could use to communicate silently and without light at night. Called sonography, each grid of dots stands for a character or phoneme.

Barbier’s system was related to the Polybius square, in which a two-digit code represents a character. In Barbier’s variant, a 6×6 matrix includes most of the characters of the French alphabet, as well as several digraphs and trigraphs:

New York Point is a system of writing for the blind invented by William Bell Wait (1839-1916), a teacher in the New York Institute for the Education of the Blind. The system used three bases of equidistant points arranged in two horizontal lines with one, two, three or four points in each line ( : :: ::: or :::: ). The most common letters are assigned to the configurations with the fewest points.

New York Point competed with the American Braille system, which employed the Braille base (an array of points 2 wide by 3 high). Embossed alphabets are relatively bulky, and New York Point’s system of only two horizontal lines and principle of assigning common letters to characters with the fewest points were seen as advantages.

Wait advocated the New York System as more logical than either the American Braille or the British Braille systems, and these systems competed in what was known as the War of the Dots. Around 1916, writing was standardized to a system more closely corresponding to British Braille, chiefly because of the large amount of written material available in that system.

Wait also invented the Kleidograph, a typewriter with twelve keys, for embossing the New York Point system on paper, and the Stereograph, for creating metal plates to be used in printing books for the blind.

Dr William Moon (December 18, 1818 – October 9, 1894) was an Englishman who created Moon type.

Moon was originally from Horsmonden, Kent. By 1839 he had become totally blind and had moved in with his widowed mother and sister in Brighton, East Sussex. He taught embossed reading codes developed by several people (Alston, Frere, Gall, and Lucas) to local boys who were blind, but found that the boys considered these systems difficult to learn. He first formulated ideas for using embossed letters in 1843 and they were published in 1845.

The Moon System of Embossed Reading (commonly known as the Moon writing, Moon alphabet, Moon type or Moon code) is a writing system for the blind, using embossed symbols mostly derived from the Roman alphabet (but simplified). It is claimed by its supporters to be easier to understand than Braille, though it is mainly used by people who have lost their sight as adults, and thus already have knowledge of the shapes of letters.

The Canadian currency tactile feature is a feature on current Canadian banknotes. Bills in the “Canadian Journey” series have a tactile feature to indicate denomination in the upper right corner of the face side of the bill, as suggested by Canadian National Institute for the Blind administrator Bruno Thériault. This tactile feature is a series of raised dots; it does not use standard Braille because the Canadian Federal Government, in consultation with the blind and visually impaired, decided a different system is more accessible. The principal designer was Dr. Susan Lederman, a professor of Psychology at Queen’s University.[1]

The currency denomination must be recognized easily, and standard Braille was deemed too sensitive. Thus Canadian currency uses a system based only on full blocks of Braille cells (6 dots). The $5 bill has one cell, with the $10, $20, and $50 denominations each having one more cell than previous. The $100 bill has two cells arranged such that there is a space of two empty cells between them.

Charles Barbier de la Sierra was the creator of night writing.

Charles Barbier de la Sierra was a Captain in the French Army during the early 1800s. “Ecriture Nocturne” (night writing) was invented in response to Napoleon’s demand for a code that soldiers could use to communicate silently and without light at night. [1]

Barbier’s system was related to the Polybius square, in which a two-digit code represents a letter. In Barbier’s variant, a 6×6 square includes most of the letters of the French alphabet, as well as several digraphs and trigraphs: