Final answer:
Aphasia is a language disorder marked by the inability to communicate effectively, whether through understanding language (receptive aphasia) or connecting speech comprehension with speech production (conduction aphasia), typically resulting from damage to specific brain areas.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term aphasia means the inability to process language appropriately. This can manifest in difficulties such as the loss of the ability to understand received language, known as receptive aphasia, where a person may not comprehend spoken or written communication directed at them. Another form is conduction aphasia, characterized by the impairment in connecting the understanding of speech with its production, meaning that while an individual might understand language and know what they want to say, they struggle to verbalize their thoughts correctly.
Aphasias are commonly due to lesions or damages to critical language processing areas of the brain, particularly in the left hemisphere's Broca's or Wernicke's areas, as well as the white matter connections between them. These conditions could also manifest in sensorium-related tasks that have language components, such as praxis (the ability to execute voluntary movements) and gnosis (the ability to recognize and process sensory information).