A patient shows a specific pattern of aphasic language disturbance. Before revealing the answer, decide what distinguishes nominal aphasia from central aphasia.

Ask whether grammar and sentence structure remain intact, with word-finding as the single outstanding problem, or whether comprehension, production, and grammar are all disturbed together. Nominal aphasia differs from central (conduction) aphasia in that grammar and sentence structure remain largely intact; the deficit is specific to naming. Central aphasia, by contrast, differs from the purely receptive or purely expressive aphasias by affecting both comprehension and production together, with faulty grammar and sentence structure and paraphasic word-substitution errors appearing in speech. Whether the disturbance is narrowly confined to naming within otherwise intact grammar, or broadly affects grammar, comprehension, and production together, is the key distinguishing feature.