An unusual type of deafness due to stroke

After suffering a stroke in some very specific areas of the brain, some people lose their ability to hear words, but nothing else. They can hear a dog barking, a telephone or a door-bell ringing, or an alarm buzzing. But if you talk to them, they can't hear you! This rare and unfortunate side effect of certain strokes is caused by damage to certain brain areas which are important for both hearing and language, especially in the left side of the brain.

This rare effect of stroke, which is commonly known as "pure word deafness" underscores the complexity of the connections between brain areas which normally allow us to process hearing, and language. In some cases this rare symptom is the distant end point of a type of language disorder known as "Wernicke's aphasia", which can also result from a stroke.

Recommended reading: