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Identify areas of the brain involved in the processing of language. Discuss if possible normal or disordered brains.

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Identify areas of the brain involved in the processing of language. Discuss if possible normal or disordered brains.

BRAIN & LANGUAGE

Introduction
There are two major areas of the human brain that are responsible for language: Broca's area, which is though to be partially responsible for language production (putting together sentences, using proper syntax, etc.) and Wernicke's area, which is thought to be partially responsible for language processing (untangling others' sentences and analyzing them for syntax, inflection, etc.). Other areas involved in language are those surrounding the Sylvian fissure, a cleavage line separating the portions of the brain that are exclusively human from those we share with other animals. In general, the areas that control language would be adjacent to one another if the human brain was laid out as a flat sheet.

Language is generated and understood in the cortex, the outermost covering of the brain. Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke, 19th Century neurologists, noted that damage to specific cortical areas, which came to bear their names, produced primarily language production or language processing disorders, but not both. A large bundle of nerve fibers was found to connect Broca's and Wernicke's areas, and damage to this pathway also produced language disorders, or aphasias.

However, even in the 19th Century, there were bits of evidence that other brain areas play some role in language, though these have remained enigmatic, as scientists could not use animal models to probe language networks in the same way they could visual or movement networks in the brain.

In the last few decades, advanced brain imaging techniques such as CT, PET, and more recently, MRI have allowed scientists to begin studying these areas in living humans.

Standard MRI, by itself a powerful innovation, shows the ...

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