Compare and contrast Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area. Describe how each was discovered.

Answer:

Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area are both usually located in the left hemisphere and are involved in language, but they serve different functions. Broca’s area is mainly involved in speech production. It was identified after Paul Broca studied a patient who could not speak normally and, after the patient’s death, found damage in the left frontal lobe. Wernicke’s area is mainly involved in language comprehension. Carl Wernicke identified it in 1874 after examining a patient whose speech was fluent but incomprehensible and who could not understand language; the autopsy revealed damage in the left temporal lobe.