Broca's area aphasias

Alexander, Michael P.; Naeser, Margaret A.; Palumbo, Carole L.

doi:10.1212/wnl.40.2.353

Cited by 200 publications

(106 citation statements)

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“…Learned vocal patterns such as human speech are produced primarily by cortical areas, with Broca's area in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC), comprising Brodmann areas (BA) 44 and 45 as a key structure that allows humans to voluntarily produce sophisticated speech signals. Brain damage in this region causes dysfunctions or severe impairment of speech and language production, known as Broca's aphasia 3,4 . In contrast to human speech, evidence suggest that vocalizations of non-human primates may be genetically pre-programmed and generated by a complex neuronal network in the brainstem [5][6][7] .…”

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confidence: 99%

Single neurons in monkey prefrontal cortex encode volitional initiation of vocalizations

2013

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Broca's area in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) has a crucial role in human volitional speech production; damage to this area causes severe impairment of speech production. Lesions in PFC of monkeys, however, have only mild effects on spontaneous vocal behaviour. Non-human primate vocalizations are thus believed to constitute affective utterances processed by a subcortical network. Here in contrast to this assumption, we show that rhesus monkeys can control their vocalizations in a goal-directed way. During single-cell recordings in the vlPFC of monkeys trained to vocalize in response to visual cues, we find call-related neurons that specifically predict the preparation of instructed vocalizations. The activity of many call-related neurons before vocal output correlates with call parameters of instructed vocalizations. These findings suggest a cardinal role of the monkey homologue of Broca's area in vocal planning and call initiation, a putative phylogenetic precursor in non-human primates for speech control in linguistic humans.

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confidence: 99%

Single neurons in monkey prefrontal cortex encode volitional initiation of vocalizations

2013

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“…For instance, lesions in the frontal and temporal lobes, some of which spared the perisylvian language areas, lead to impairment in producing or understanding words (e.g., Damasio & Tranel, 1993;Humphreys & Forde, 2001). In addition, lesions around the inferior frontal gyrus correlate with different aphasic symptoms within Broca's aphasia (Alexander, Naeser & Palumbo, 1990). This suggests that other areas outside the classical language areas are crucial for language processing.…”

Section: Theory and Practice In Language Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Current research in neurolinguistics uses the available methods, approaches and powerful new technologies to investigate brain structure and function with respect to language representation through addressing three basic questions: (1) What are the neural underpinnings of language? (2) Are these neural correlates exclusively dedicated to language?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain and Language Specialty: Insights from Aphasiology and Neuroimaging

Ghaleb

2017

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Abstract-Scientific interest in the investigation of language and its neural correlates has always centered on the possibility of pinpointing the location of language in the brain with the assumption that specific areas of the brain could be dedicated to specific language components and processes. A central question in current neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic research that has been thoroughly discussed over the last few decades is whether certain linguistic abilities result from dedicated brain areas each specialized for specific kinds of linguistic representations and processes or whether these abilities are more accurately described in terms of interactions among different linguistic levels distributed across multiple brain regions. An outlook on language derived from current research suggests that language specialty as a distinctly human cognitive faculty lies in being supported by distributed neural structures that interact efficiently with so many domain-general abilities, functions, and information sources rather than in being located in a dedicated set of cognitive neural structures. This paper is a reflection of the insights into language in the brain based on findings obtained from neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies that support this perspective. The paper goes on plead that with current developments in linguistic theory, as a model of human knowledge of language, and some powerful methodological advances in cognitive neuroscience may lead to a new and more precise image of the functional organization of language in the brain.

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“…The advent of structural brain imaging more than 100 years after Broca's observations, first with computed tomography (CT) and later with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), paved the way for more precise anatomical localization of the cognitive deficits that are manifest after brain injury. Anatomical analyses of Broca's aphasia using structural neuroimaging (Naeser et al, 1989, Dronkers, 1996, Alexander et al, 1990) have more precisely determined that damage restricted to the inferior frontal gyrus causes only a transient aphasia, with recovery within weeks to months. Instead, damage to deep white matter and insular cortex causes persistent nonfluency.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%