Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Broca's neighborhood

Many years ago, I lived in Paris. My friends and I would often congregate at another ex-pat friend's apartment, which was centrally located.

The apartment was on a street named rue Broca.

After the stroke, people explained to me that I had aphasia. But it wasn't until when my brother-in-law--who is a doctor, and a very kind one--showed me his Ipod with an app that had a diagram of the brain, where I saw a label:  Broca's region.

When I saw Broca's name, it was as if I saw an old friend again. Of course, in a different context.

2 comments:

  1. It turns out that Rue Broca is named after the same person as Broca's Region: Paul Broca, the neuroanatomist who first described the region's role in speech.

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  2. Grey's Anatomy on March 15, 2012 had a story about a patient who couldn't speak after brain surgery because they injured the Broca area. I was very excited to hear Broca's region and its role in language mentioned in a primetime show! On the other hand, they said the patient would never speak again, which seems like misinformation.

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