Neuropsychology of Language: Wernicke's area and Broca's area

From observations of people who have suffered brain damage, often as the result of a stroke, it was found that left hemisphere of our brain is specialized for language functions. Going in more detail, we can see that language functions are localized in the upper temporal lobe and the lower frontal lobe of the brain. The temporal lobe language region is termed Wernicke's area (named after the German Neurologist Carl Wernicke). The language region in the lower frontal lobe is known as Broca's area (after Paul Broca, a French Physician). Damage to one or other of these areas results in aphasia.

Wernicke's area is involved in the understanding of spoken and written language. It also plays a part in the formulation of sentences. Injury to this area cause the individual trouble in finding right words during communication. What is communicated will be usually vague and deficient in meaning. However, the person's speech will be quite fluent and well pronounced.

Other symptoms of damage to Wernicke's area include

1) imparement of ability to repeat a spoken word;

2) problems with reading and writing;

3) difficulty in naming common objects; and

4) the intrusion of incorrect sounds or words into the flow of speech.

Damage to Broca's area are quite different from the symptoms of those with Wernicke's area damage. Comprehension of spoken and written language is generally intact, and there are only minor problems in repetition and naming. The big difficulty is with the fluency of speech. The Broca patient

1) speaks slowly and with great effort;

2) articulates the sounds of speech poorly;

3) tends to omit pronouns, adjectives, adverbs and articles;

4) uses the singular of nouns; and

5) has great trouble with the tenses of verbs.

The speech of a Broca patient will be nonfluent and ungrammatical. A Broca patient's pattern of speech has been called telegraphic. During communication, only the main words are used by the patient.