Lesions in which area are responsible for conduction aphasia?

• A. Arcuate fasciculus
• B. Broca's area
• C. Wernicke's area
• D. Prefrontal cortex

Answer: (A)

Conduction aphasia arises when the pathway connecting language comprehension and production is disrupted—the arcuate fasciculus. This white‑matter tract links Wernicke’s area, responsible for understanding language, with Broca’s area, involved in producing language. When this connection is damaged, speech remains fluent and comprehension is relatively preserved, but repetition becomes impaired and phonemic errors are common because the brain can understand what is heard but has trouble translating that into accurate spoken output.

Damage to Broca’s area alone typically causes nonfluent aphasia: speech is effortful and telegraphic with good comprehension. Damage to Wernicke’s area typically causes fluent aphasia: speech is effortless but often nonsensical, with poor comprehension. The prefrontal cortex is more linked to executive functions and behavior, not the classic language repetition deficit seen in conduction aphasia.