Research has shown that a brain area that was believed to be where it is processed human language was identified incorrectly in its day. The authors of the new study also found the correct area responsible for speech. Given these findings, it is expected that clinical advances occur on accurate underlying neurological problems in patients after brain injury go to suffer speech disorders.
In the nineteenth century, the German neurologist Carl Wernicke identified through studies of injury and stroke, an area in the back of the cerebral cortex as the place where it is processed speech. However, now the team of neurologists Josef Rauschecker and Iain DeWitt, Medical Center of Georgetown University, has shown that this area is actually an inch closer to the front of the brain and on the other side of the cortex hearing. That’s like a mile away in terms of architecture and brain functions, as indicated by the researchers, who analyzed data from more than 100 studies on brain imaging. The textbooks will now have to be corrected, as Rauschecker notes.
The new study shows that the actual area of speech processing matches that found recently in nonhuman primates, suggesting that the origin of human language center is older than previously thought. Previously, other researchers reached the same conclusion that Rauschecker and DeWitt, getting reactions of skepticism or at least raising a controversy. However, the heated debate about where exactly the Wernicke area seems to have come to an end, as the investigation of Rauschecker and DeWitt apparently provides the definitive evidence.