The two areas of the brain that are used for learning and speaking language are Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area. In 1861, Paul Broca described a patient who could only say the word “tan”. When his patient died, Broca examined his brain and found there was damage to the left frontal cortex. This was later named “Broca’s
Area”.
     In 1876, Karl Wernicke found that damage to a different part of the brain, caused similar problems. This part of the brain,was later named after it’s discoverer.
    This area is situated closer to the back and lower in the brain than Broca’s area. Both areas are positioned in the left-half of the brain.
    Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area are joined by a group of nerves called arcuate fasciculus (Which resembles a bunch of guitar strings). Damage to the arcuate fasciculus, can lead to a disorder called conduction aphasia. If you suffer from this disorder you will be able to understand language. When you speak, it will not make sense, and you cannot repeat words.
 

DAMAGE TO BROCA'S AREA
(Broca’s aphasia)
     ~    prevents a person  from speaking
     ~    person can understand language
     ~    words are not correctly shaped
     ~    speech is slow and hazed
     ~    loss of ability to comprehend
           language
 

DAMAGE TO WERNICKES AREA
(Wernicke's aphasia)
     ~    person’s speech is recognizable,
          but words combined to form a
          sentence, for example, makes no
          sense. Speaking in this way is
          called “word salad” because its
          mixed up like vegetables in a
          salad.
 
 
 
 
 

    Something you will see very often through out this project, is the term neuron. A neuron is a nerve cell that is filled with new information that you learn each day. Aproximately 250,000 neurons are created every day deep beneath the lobes (sections) of your brain.
 On the dot on top of this "i" you could probably fit about fifty neurons side by side across it. But you would only be ably to put five large neurons across it. One regular neuron is about ten microns wide. A large neuron is about one hundred microns wide. If you are having a hard time picturing this, look at the data below;

1 neuron = 10 microns wide
10 neurons = 100 microns wide
100 neurons  = 100 microns wide = 1 mm wide
1,000 neurons  = 10 mm wide = 1 cm wide
100,000 neurons = 100 cm wide = 1 m wide
100,000,000 neurons = 1000 m = 1 km
10,000,000,000 neurons = 100km
100,000,000,000 neurons = 100km!!!!!!!!!

 The human adult brain weighs between 1300 gm and 1400 gm. A newborn human's brain weighs between 350 gm and 400 gm. For comparison:

elephant brain = 6,000 gm  chimpanzee brain = 420 gm
rhesus monkey brain =95 gm beagle dog brain = 72 gm
cat brain = 30 gm   rat brain = 2 gm

 For more in formation on this and other related topics, check out the web sites in my bibliography.
 

    If you are having a hard
time understanding how
neurons fill your brain picture
this.
     Imagine that these baby
food jars are four different
brains. The blue substance are
the neurons (or information)
already in your brain. The
yellow substance is about what
you would learn in a year.
 As you can see, this
process varies from year to year.
 

?¿ Did you know that
you learn the most between
the age of 5 and 7?¿