The Areas of the Brain Responsible for Language

• The Broca and Wernicke areas

In the 19th century, cases of people with language disorders were already being studied, such as the inability to construct meaningful sentences (Weiler, 2012). One of the scientists who contributed to this research was Paul Broca, who presented some conclusions in 1861 after treating a patient who could only produce the sound /tan/ verbally. Apart from this, the patient showed no other problems: he could understand sentences and move normally. After the patient's death, Broca had access to his brain and found a lesion in the left frontal lobe (Herrera, 2019).

Broca's studies were not well received by scientists at the time, since they «refused to assign a material substrate to a faculty considered unique to human beings» (Donoso, 1992, p. 20). However, a decade later, another scientist named Carl Wernicke described another type of aphasia that occurs in the left hemisphere of the brain. These studies led to the conclusion that this hemisphere controls language.

Broca's area is responsible for playing a role in word formation. It is located in the brain and is independent of the area responsible for perception and other brain functions. Wernicke's area, on the other hand, stores sound images and is the region responsible for language comprehension (Elsevier Connect, 2019). Both areas have a reciprocal relationship and are independent; damage to either can cause different types of aphasia, but they are closely related to each other.

Today, part of this model is no longer used, but it remains useful as an initial approach to the categorization of patients with aphasia (Nasios et al., 2019). However, it should be considered that the model does not adequately describe the neural connections relevant to language.

Paul Broca Anonymous / Unknown / Public domain	Broca's area charlyzon / CC BY-SA (license)
Carl Wernicke J.F. Lehmann, Muenchen / Public domain	Wernicke's area Charlyzona / CC BY-SA (license)

References

Donoso S., A. (1992). Desarrollo histórico de la correlación cerebro-lenguaje. Revista de Psicología, 3, 19-24. DOI: 10.5354/0719-0581.2012.18639

Elsevier Connect. (2019). Funciones de la corteza cerebral: áreas de Wernicke, Broca y de asociación límbica. Elsevier. https://www.elsevier.com/es-es/connect/medicina/edu-funciones-de-la-corteza-cerebral

Herrera, L. (2019). Procesamiento Cerebral del Lenguaje: Historia y evolución teórica. Fides et Ratio - Revista de Difusión cultural y científica de la Universidad La Salle en Bolivia, 17(17), 101-130. http://www.scielo.org.bo/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2071-081X2019000100007&lng=es&tlng=es.

Nasios, G., Dardiotis, E., & Messinis, L. (2019). From Broca and Wernicke to the neuromodulation era: Insights of brain language networks for neurorehabilitation. Behavioural Neurology, 2019. DOI: 10.1155/2019/9894571

Weiler, C. (2012). El modelo de doble ruta. Mente y Cerebro, 54, 58-65. https://www.investigacionyciencia.es/revistas/mente-y-cerebro/naturaleza-y-psique-550/el-modelo-de-doble-ruta-8642

How to cite this article

Nocetti, F.A. (2020). "The areas of the brain responsible for language". NabbuBlog. http://nabbublog.blogspot.com/2020/07/the-areas-of-brain-responsible-for.html