Semantic Demantia

Semantic Dementia is a very rare disease and is closely related to Alzheimer’s disease. People with this disease have an impaired ability to understand the meaning of words. They have a hard time putting together or understanding a full concept. This disorder is caused by the shrinking of the frontal and temporal lobes in the brain. This disease is really rare because it is a result of damage to the temporal cortex in both hemispheres and not just one.

It is quite an interesting disease because the person can understand what is being talked about or can recognize someone but will not be able to verbalize what it is. In other words they have lost the connection between the words and the object. Some people cannot remember what they have learned and therefore don’t understand what it is they are seeing or hearing. For example they my see a skirt and when asked to pick out a skirt they may pick out a pair of pants. The word meaning is lost. Some other symptoms include loss of muscle control, inability to show empathy because of lack of conscious control, and the repeating of words from memory. Unfortunately like Alzheimer’s, there is no cure for semantic dementia but some suggest taking anti-depressants to minimize the aggressiveness of the disease.

It must be very frustrating to not be able to hand someone what they ask for because you don’t know what the word attached to the object is. It’s kind of like being asked to get something for someone who is speaking a language you do not know. You must used context clues or see where they are pointing or staring to try to understand the word meanings but sometimes it isn't enough.