jargon aphasia
Pronunciation: JAR-gon ay-FAY-zee-ah
Fluent but meaningless speech production with preserved prosody and grammar.
Full Definition
A severe form of fluent aphasia characterized by abundant speech output that lacks meaningful content, often containing nonsensical words (neologisms) while maintaining normal rhythm, intonation, and grammatical structure. Patients with jargon aphasia typically have poor awareness of their language deficits and may become frustrated when listeners don't understand them. The condition most commonly results from posterior left hemisphere strokes affecting Wernicke's area. Two main types exist: semantic jargon (real words used inappropriately) and neologistic jargon (made-up words). This differs from other fluent aphasias because comprehension is severely impaired.
Usage
Usage note: Distinguish from psychiatric thought disorder or other fluent aphasias with preserved meaning.
In Context
- "The stroke patient's jargon aphasia produced fluent but incomprehensible utterances during language assessment." — Acute stroke evaluation
- "Family education focused on understanding that jargon aphasia reflects brain damage, not psychiatric illness." — Speech therapy consultation