Until the age of five, I was only exposed to the Spanish language, but when I started school, I quickly learned how to read, write, and speak English. When my mother gave birth to my younger brother, doctors advised us, as a bilingual household, to teach him one language at a time to avoid confusion. It would be interesting to examine this advice with a deeper understanding of language and its manifestation in our brains.
Introduction: Language in the Brain The understanding of language has progressed mainly from studying abnormal conditions, most importantly post-mortem analysis of patients with language disorders after brain damage (Geschwind, 1972). A disturbance of language resulting from brain damage is known as aphasia. The loss of speech from brain damage had been described before the 19th century, but it was not until 1861 that Paul Broca began to conduct medical studies of such cases. Broca discovered that “damage to a specific portion of the brain results in disturbance of language output, or aphasia” (Stemmer&Whitaker, 2008). The portion of the brain is termed Broca’s area, and is located …show more content…
Literatures citing Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are unable to maintain consistentcy, as the areas’ exact microscopic locations remain ambiguous. The generally agreed upon method of naming sections of the brain is cytoarchitectonical analysis, which involves studying the cellular composition of the body 's tissues under the microscope (Stemmer&Whitaker, 2008). The most-used, best-known map was created by Korbinian Brodmann, and labels areas of the brain as Broadmann areas (BA). The problem with both Broca’s and Wernicke’s area is the ambiguity of their locations in terms of BA, therefore causing discrepencies among different literatures (Stemmer&Whitaker,
Introduction: Language in the Brain The understanding of language has progressed mainly from studying abnormal conditions, most importantly post-mortem analysis of patients with language disorders after brain damage (Geschwind, 1972). A disturbance of language resulting from brain damage is known as aphasia. The loss of speech from brain damage had been described before the 19th century, but it was not until 1861 that Paul Broca began to conduct medical studies of such cases. Broca discovered that “damage to a specific portion of the brain results in disturbance of language output, or aphasia” (Stemmer&Whitaker, 2008). The portion of the brain is termed Broca’s area, and is located …show more content…
Literatures citing Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas are unable to maintain consistentcy, as the areas’ exact microscopic locations remain ambiguous. The generally agreed upon method of naming sections of the brain is cytoarchitectonical analysis, which involves studying the cellular composition of the body 's tissues under the microscope (Stemmer&Whitaker, 2008). The most-used, best-known map was created by Korbinian Brodmann, and labels areas of the brain as Broadmann areas (BA). The problem with both Broca’s and Wernicke’s area is the ambiguity of their locations in terms of BA, therefore causing discrepencies among different literatures (Stemmer&Whitaker,