- A dictionary of medical eponyms

Broca's area

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Area of the left hemisphere of the brain at the posterior end of the Gyrus frontalis inferior (area 44 and 45) of the dominant hemisphere. It contains the motor speech area and controls movements of tongue, lips, and vocal cords. Loss of speech may follow haemorrhage into this area.

Bibliography

  • P. P. Broca:
    Perte de la parole; ramolissement chronique et destruction partielle du lobe antérieur gauche de cerveau.
    Bulletins de la Société d’anthropologie de Paris, 1861, 2: 235-238. "In the brain, which we term the seat of reason, there is not anything of moment more than I can discover in the crany of a beast: and this is no inconsiderable argument of the inorganity of the soul, at least in the sense we generally so receive it. Thus we are men, and we know not how."
    Sir Thomas Browne, c. 1635.

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