Naming to picture versus description in three aphasic subgroups.

Twenty-three male aphasics, classified as Broca's, Wernicke's and anomic, were tested on their ability to name objects to either visual confrontation or oral associative description. For the Broca's and Wernicke's aphasics, naming to visual confrontation was significantly better than to oral description. Broca's aphasics tended to produce more correct names than both other groups in both conditions, although significance was reached only in oral description. Differences were not significantly affected by the comprehension deficit or severity of aphasia. With picture naming, all groups tended to name immediately or not al all. For oral description, there was a greater proportion of long latency responses for the posterior patients. When given phonemic or visual cues to assist naming, Broca's aphasics benefited the most, the anomics performing most poorly. All these results suggest qualitative differences in naming ability in aphasic subgroups.