Neurolinguistics in Linguistics - Neurolinguistics Language and Brain - Language Parts of the Brain

Neurolinguistics is the study of the neural mechanisms in the human brain that control the comprehension, production, and acquisition of language. Only the left hemisphere will be given primary importance. Left hemisphere dominance for language has been consistently confirmed in clinical and experimental settings and constitutes one of the main axioms of neurology and neuroscience. However, functional neuroimaging studies are finding that the right hemisphere also plays a role in diverse language functions.

Following are the language areas in the brain of a human being.
1) Broca’s area
2) Wernicke’s area
3) Motor cortex
4) Arcuate fasciculus

It is also known as the “anterior speech cortex” or, more usually, Broca’s area. Paul Broca, a French surgeon, reported in the 1860s that damage to this specific part of the brain was related to extreme difficulty in producing speech. This finding was first used to argue that language ability must be in the left hemisphere and since then has been treated as an indication that Broca’s area is crucially involved in the production of speech.

This area is the “posterior speech cortex,” or Wernicke’s area.
Carl Wernicke was a German doctor who, in the 1870s, reported that damage to this part of the brain was found among patients who had speech comprehension difficulties. This finding confirmed the left hemisphere location of language ability and led to the view that Wernicke’s area is part of the brain crucially involved in the understanding of speech.

This area is the “posterior speech cortex,” or Wernicke’s area.
Carl Wernicke was a German doctor who, in the 1870s, reported that damage to this part of the brain was found among patients who had speech comprehension difficulties. This finding confirmed the left hemisphere location of language ability and led to the view that Wernicke’s area is part of the brain crucially involved in the understanding of speech.

This area marked with no. 4 in the illustration is a bundle of nerve fibers called the arcuate fasciculus. This was also one of Wernicke’s discoveries and is now known to form a crucial connection between Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas.

The word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke’s area. This signal is then transferred via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area where preparations are made to produce it. A signal is then sent to the part of the motor cortex to physically articulate the word. This is called the localization view and it has been used to suggest that the brain activity involved in hearing a word, understanding it, then saying it, would follow a definite pattern.