Language is the mental faculty that many people consider most distinctly separates us from other species. Language has also long been studied by scientists. Symptoms like those experienced by Bill Rieger and Jim Hurdle first led Paul Broca in the late 1800s to realize that the hemispheres have different functions, an event that heralded the advent of modern-day neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience. Broca noticed that a lesion to a specific region of the left hemisphere causes a loss of fluent speech even though the person’s speech comprehension is relatively spared. This syndrome, known as Broca’s aphasia, has provided a window to understanding the neurological organization for language.
Aphasia is the loss of a language processing ability after brain damage. In this chapter, we discuss a variety of aphasias, gleaning lessons about the neurological organization for language.
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