Which type of aphasia is characterized by difficulty understanding spoken words while speech production remains intact?

Wernicke's aphasia is characterized by significant deficits in the ability to understand spoken and written language while the production of speech often remains fluent and intact. Individuals with this type of aphasia produce speech that may be grammatically correct and has normal intonation, but the content is often nonsensical or lacks meaning, making communication difficult.

In Wernicke's aphasia, the primary impairment lies in comprehension rather than speech production, which involves the temporal lobe of the brain, particularly in the area associated with language comprehension. This condition illustrates the disconnection between the ability to formulate language and the ability to comprehend it, highlighting the complexities of language processing in the brain.

Speech output in Wernicke's aphasia is often referred to as "fluent" because individuals can speak in long-winded sentences but may not be aware of the errors or nonsensical nature of their communication. This distinguishes it clearly from other types of aphasia, where either speech production or comprehension is equally affected.