What is a primary characteristic of fluent aphasia?

A primary characteristic of fluent aphasia is the presence of effortless speech production that often includes paraphasias, which are errors in speech where a person substitutes a word with a similar-sounding or related word, or creates neologisms (made-up words). Individuals with fluent aphasia can often output speech at a normal rate and with normal prosody, but the content of their speech may be disorganized or nonsensical. This contrasts with other types of aphasia, where speech production may be more effortful or contain significant errors in grammar, word retrieval, or comprehension.

In fluent aphasia, although speech may be fluent, it does not necessarily convey meaningful or coherent information. The person may be able to articulate words and phrases easily, but their ability to understand or produce language that is contextually appropriate may be impaired. The paraphasias can lead to confusion during communication and can significantly impact the listener's understanding, making it a defining characteristic of this type of aphasia.