Actor Bruce Willis, 67, is stepping away from his long career as an action movie star, having recently been diagnosed with aphasia, a neurological disorder that affects speech and comprehension.
The Die Hard actor’s ex-wife, Demi Moore, made the announcement on Wednesday via Instagram alongside a photo of a younger Willis smirking in a bathrobe and sunglasses.
“Our beloved Bruce has been experiencing some health issues and has recently been diagnosed with aphasia, which is impacting his cognitive abilities,” Moore said. “As a result of this and with much consideration Bruce is stepping away from the career that has meant so much to him.”
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Moore did not say what brought on the aphasia, which is typically caused by brain injuries such as stroke or a tumor.
But what is aphasia, and how many people have it? Here’s an explanation:
What is aphasia?
Aphasia is a neurological condition usually prompted by an injury to the brain, such as a stroke, that affects one or more of the areas related to language. Stroke is the leading cause of aphasia. About 25%-40% of stroke survivors acquire aphasia, according to the National Aphasia Association. It impairs recognition and expression of language as well as reading and writing. Other causes of aphasia onset include blows to the head, brain tumors, infections, and degenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s. People with aphasia can have completely preserved intellectual and cognitive capabilities unrelated to speech and language.
How is aphasia diagnosed?
The first step to diagnosing a person with aphasia is to see a neurologist about the brain injury, which will lead most patients to undergo an MRI or CT scan to pinpoint the extent of the injury and its exact location in the brain. If the neurologist suspects aphasia, they will refer the patient to a speech-language pathologist, who conducts a wide range of tests that include studying speech, repetition, comprehension, reading, and writing, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders.
Is there more than one type of aphasia?
Yes. There are several types of aphasia that a brain injury victim can experience. Patients with Broca aphasia, or nonfluent aphasia, have sustained an injury to the frontal lobe of the brain, which is responsible for voluntary movement, language expression, and higher cognitive functions, such as memory, emotions, impulse control, problem-solving, and social interactions. Because of the frontal lobe’s importance for motor movement, people with Broca aphasia often have right-sided weakness or paralysis of the arm and leg. Those with Broca aphasia would find fast speech and grammatically advanced sentences difficult to understand. They also usually speak in short sentences, omitting articles and simple words such as “and” and “the.” Someone with Broca aphasia may say “Walk dog” to mean “I will take the dog for a walk.”
Wernicke’s aphasia, also known as fluent aphasia, results from injury to a person’s temporal lobe, which is responsible for language comprehension and sound processing, long-term memory, and face recognition. A person with this kind of aphasia will speak in long, rambling sentences that do not always make sense and often include irrelevant or made-up words. Reading and writing are also severely impaired.
Global aphasia is the most severe form of the disorder and results from extensive damage to language areas of the brain. People with global aphasia undergo extreme loss of speech and language skills and may be able to speak only a few simple words such as “yes” and “no” or common, over-repeated phrases, such as “How are you?”
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How many people have aphasia?
Most people diagnosed with aphasia are in middle to old age. There are at least 2 million people with aphasia living in the United States, and nearly 180,000 people are diagnosed with it each year. Aphasia is also more common than Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, or muscular dystrophy, the National Aphasia Association reported.
Can it be treated?
The recommended treatment for aphasia typically includes speech and language therapy aimed at recovering language abilities the patient has lost and coming up with other ways to communicate effectively. In some cases, patients can recover without any treatment. But while speech and language rehabilitation can be helpful, very few people are able to recover their pre-injury language abilities fully.
