Revision of the language space, XIX. For two brains of the century

2007/06/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia
• Anatomia/Fisiologia
• Medikuntza

French doctor Paul Broca studied the brains of two patients with language problems in the nineteenth century. In the twentieth century. He saw that in the front area, on the left side, both had a problem. Since then, the lower part of the left lobe is called the Broca area and is considered a language zone. If an injury occurs, the ability to speak is impaired.

Doctor Broca put both brains in alcohol and kept them in a museum in Paris. Nina Dronkers and her co-workers at a California research center (USA) have obtained magnetic resonance imaging from two brains of the Paris museum. Before one of the brains was scanned, but for the other it was the first time. In addition, until now the images were not compared with the modern interpretations of the Broca area. And it has surprised their findings. In both cases they have seen that the injured area is greater than the Broca area. Dronkers considers that this can lead to misunderstandings in the diagnosis of people with language problems, since clinical studies can exclude the origin of the problem if they limit the analysis to a single focus - the Broca area.

Dronkers and their coworkers now want to test new imaging techniques to investigate other areas of the brain, with which they hope to see something they have not seen so far.