KATIE HUGHES AND MARLEY ROBERTS

Carl Wernicke (1874)

Wernicke’s Area

Function: language comprehension, Semantic processing, language recognition, language interpretation

Location: Wernicke's area is located in the left temporal lobe, posterior to the primary auditory complex.

Wernicke’s Study

In 1873, Wernicke received a patient who had suffered a stroke

Couldn’t make sense of spoken words Writing was incomprehensible The patient spoke in a perfectly normal way

This sparked his interest in studying the brain

After his patient died, he discovered that there was a lesion near the auditory region in the back of the left side of the brain

Discovery

When looking at the lesion, he discovered that this particular region on the brain was associated with: Sensory and receptive activity Speech and Reading comprehension

This explained why the patient was unable to interpret speech and writing

This area was then called Wernicke’s Area of the brain

The syndrome that the patient had was then named aphasia by Wernicke

Concepts Today

Nowadays, scientists believe that Wernicke’s area could also be involved with semantic( language or logic) processing

Sometimes called the receptive language area

Discussion Questions

When was a time that you felt that you could not interpret what someone was saying to you?

What about when you were reading? Did anyone that you know ever had a stroke? If so, Can you compare the symptoms of

their stroke to the symptoms of the patient in the study?

Do you think Wernicke’s Area and your assigned area work together? How are they similar?