Indeed, research suggests a functional disconnection of the left tempoparietal area from fusiform gyrus and
Broca's area. Researchers have found that dyslexics activated Wernicke's area and
Broca's area during language tasks but, unlike unimpaired readers, they did not activate them in concert (Paulesu, Frith, & Frackowiak, 1993).
Friederici, "
Broca's area and the ventral premotor cortex in language: functional differentiation and specificity," Cortex, vol.
The proposed extension of
Broca's area into music appreciation will spark controversy, he adds.
The volunteers with the most activity in
Broca's Area tended to score high on empathy measures.
Increased activity in the
Broca's area of dyslexic readers is another intriguing and unexplained finding in the new study, Eden adds.
The study showed that a small piece of the brain can compute three different things at different times - within a quarter of a second - and shows that
Broca's area doesn't just do one thing when processing language.
The findings may reflect either the sensitivity of part of
Broca's area to language exposure during childhood or the existence of marked differences in the ways that children and adults learn languages, Hirsch says.
Deacon contends that the left-hemisphere region linking the hoots and coos of monkeys to human utterances is not
Broca's area but a patch of tissue just in front of it called the prefrontal area.
However, brain-imaging studies have hinted that
Broca's area also tends to be larger in one half of the chimpanzee brain than the other.
If the interpretation of Old World monkey language that Miyagawa and Clarke put forward here holds up, then humans' ability to harness
Broca's area for language may specifically have enabled them to recombine language elements as other primates cannot - by enabling us to link more than two items together in speech.
Doctors discovered a growth in her
Broca's area, the part of the brain in charge of speech.
Both Charcot and Broca made medical breakthroughs for which they are still remembered today in common medical terminology for example Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and "
Broca's area," the part of the brain named after Broca.