The British Aphasiology Society (BAS) is a national interest group formed to foster the study of aphasia and promote development of a range of clinical services for people with aphasia. Aphasia is an acquired language disorder that affects our ability to speak, read or write language. These activities for most of us are done without much thought or effort and as such we take them for granted. The act of storing and producing words and forming them into sentences is very complex with many brain regions involved. Normally, the pieces all fit together so seamlessly, so that one is not even aware of the individual components. But stroke (cerebral vascular accident – CVA) and other forms of brain damage (head injury, tumour, progressive disease) may compromise the efficiency of one component or another, and in doing so, disrupt the integrated functioning of the system as a whole. Different facets of language can be affected in different individuals. Some people have particular problems with remembering what words mean, others have problems remembering how words are pronounced. Some are unable to combine sounds to create words, others to combine words to create sentences.
The BAS brings together people from many disciplines involved in language and communication such as Speech and Language Therapy, Linguistics, Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience, along with people with aphasia and their carers.