Language Centres

• Broca’s area has been found to be associated with multiple language functions, including speech and the ability to articulate words.
• Damage to Broca’s area is known as aphasia.
• The main symptom of Broca’s aphasia is a deficit in the production of spoken and written language.
• Wernicke identified that some of his patients were able to speak but were not able to actually comprehend language.
• Wernicke‘s area was discovered after examining the brains of patients, where it was revealed that there were lesions at a junction of the upper temporal lobe in the left hemisphere.
• Broca’s area is believed to be located in a part of the inferior frontal gyrus in the frontal lobe, on the left side of the majority of people.
• Broca’s area is responsible for speech production.
• Wernicke’s area is responsible for language comprehension.
• Broca discovered his region in the brain while treating a patient named Leborgne, who was more commonly referred to as ‘Tan’.
• Broca's patient Tan could understand spoken language but was unable to produce any coherent words, and could only say ‘Tan’.
• After Tan’s death, Broca conducted a post-mortem on Tan’s brain and discovered he had a lesion in the left frontal lobe. This led Broca to conclude that this area was responsible for speech production.
• People with damage to the left frontal lobe experience Broca’s aphasia, which results in slow and inarticulate speech.
• Carl Wernicke discovered another area of the brain that was involved in understanding language.
• Wernicke’s area is found in the left temporal lobe, and it is thought to be involved in language processing/comprehension.
• People with damage to Wernicke's area struggle to comprehend language, often producing sentences that are fluent, but meaningless.
• Language centres in the brain.

  
• Two areas of the brain have been identified as language centres; Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area.
• Broca’s area has been identified in the frontal lobe, whereas Wernicke’s area has been identified in the temporal lobe.
• Broca's area is located in the left frontal lobe and is responsible for speech production.
• Wernicke's area is found in the left temporal lobe and is involved in language comprehension.
• The angular gyrus, located in the parietal lobe, plays a role in reading and writing abilities.
• The arcuate fasciculus is a bundle of nerve fibres that connects Broca's area and Wernicke's area, allowing for communication between the two language centres.
• Damage to the angular gyrus can result in difficulties with reading and writing, a condition called alexia, commonly known as dyslexia.