Broca and Werniches aphasia essays

Broca and Werniches aphasia essays Brocas and Wernickes Aphasias Brocas and Wernickes aphasias suggest s obvious organization of language in the brain through the Standard model. Individual aphasics in practice exhibit a wide variety of symptoms, and research has revealed that language areas are not located strictly in their prescribed areas as mentioned earlier, but are modular, often some distance away, or even branched out in some cases. Their work also suggests that the language faculties are largely independent of other, non-linguistic functions of the brain. Brain damage and the effects of brain damage are highly unpredictable, and one of the common results is the disruption of the victims ability to use language. Disordered language resulting from brain damage has usually been called aphasia. Though since this term means literally absence of speech, and since few if any lose their linguistic ability entirely, many neurologists now prefer the term dysphasia which mean disordered speech. However for the purpose of this essay , it will be referred to as aphasia. In the first half of the nineteenth century several researchers independently noticed that a number of brain-damaged patients had strikingly similar disorders of speech. All the victims upon further post-mortem study, proved to have suffered damage to roughly the same part of the brain. In 1864, surgeon Paul Broca announced his results after observing eight patients. The disorder described was Brocas aphasia, and the area identified was called Brocas area, concluding that Brocas area produces the symptoms of Brocas aphasia. Brocas area of the brain is a small patch , not more than an inch across of the cerebral cortex. For the majority of people, Brocas area is found on the left side of the brain. Damage to this area produces a specific and identifiable type of aphasia. The victims speech beco...