Abstract
We reported a case of Wernicke's aphasia which showed approximately 10 % correct answers in naming of the patient's own family members, in spite of scoring 40 % on the naming task of the Standard Language Test of Aphasia (SLTA). First we suspected so-called “category-specific naming disorder” regarding family members ; however, on a subsequent naming test including 10 other semantic categories, the subject exhibited different severities depending on the semantic category. That is, over 75 % for the category of body parts ; from 25 to 50 % for means of transportation, fruits, vegetables, animals and musical instruments ; and less than 25 % for famous domestic places, family members, fingers and colors. The present study investigated the mechanism underlying the naming disorder by assuming a hierachical structure among semantic categories and applying to it the above results. We concluded that this case's naming disorder is not limited to a specific category but appears with different severities depending on the hierarchical structure of the semantic categories.
