Broca's area
Área de Broca
- Date
- 1861 · confidence high
- Place
- Paris, France
- Credited to
- Paul Broca
- Field
- Life & health
What was discovered
Broca studied a patient who could only utter the syllable "tan" and, after his autopsy, located the lesion in a region of the left frontal lobe; with a second similar case, he concluded that this brain area is responsible for producing articulate speech. It was one of the first proofs that specific mental functions are localized in specific brain regions.
What it led to
- Brain localization of cognitive functions
- Neurology of language (Broca's aphasia)
Built on
- Gall's phrenology (as a localization hypothesis, later refuted in its details)