Language Localization: Broca's and Wernicke's Areas Explained

Language Localization and Brain Areas

Language localization: Identification of circuits involved in language-related activities within the hemispheres. The Wernicke-Geschwind model influences the cortical localization of language.

Wernicke's Area

An area of the left temporal cortex; Wernicke's area is considered the center of language comprehension.

Expressive Language

Concerning the production of language, related to writing or speaking.

Broca's Aphasia

A disorder of speech production without a deficit related to language comprehension. For example, a patient asked about a dental appointment responds with choppy and unintelligible speech: "Yes ... Monday ... and Dick Pope ... Wednesday at nine o'clock in the morning ... and at ten in the morning ... ... and ... tooth doctor."

Receptive Language

Concerning the understanding of language.

Wernicke's Aphasia

A disorder without language comprehension deficits related to speech production. If asked to describe a drawing of two boys stealing a cookie, a patient might say: "The mother is out here working her work to get better, but when you look at the other kids looking elsewhere. Is working at another time."

Word Salad

Speech that sounds and flows fluently but is totally incomprehensible.

Arcuate Fasciculus

A nerve pathway between Broca's and Wernicke's areas.

Conduction Aphasia

Aphasia resulting from injury to the nerve tract that connects Broca's and Wernicke's areas, called the arcuate fasciculus.

Alexia

Inability to read, which is not due to a general visual, motor, or intellectual deficit.

Agraphia

Inability to write, which is not due to a general visual, motor, or intellectual deficit.

Angular Gyrus

A region of the posterior cortex at the boundary between the temporal and parietal lobes, which in the left hemisphere is thought to play a role in reading.

Wernicke-Geschwind Model Components

Primary visual cortex, angular gyrus, primary auditory cortex, Wernicke's area, arcuate fasciculus, Broca's area, and primary motor cortex (all in the left hemisphere).

Sequential Model (Wernicke-Geschwind)

Each event involved is a chain of responses that occur in a linear sequence. A unique string of responses.

Parallel Model

Comprising two or more routes of simultaneous activity.