Areas of the brain specializing in language: their location and functions

These parts of the brain specialize in mental functions associated with the use of language.

Brain processes play a very important role in regulating our daily activities. Specifically, there are Specifically, there are several areas of the brain that are responsible for organizing the linguistic abilities and activities needed to communicate. that are necessary for us to communicate.

Three of the most studied areas related to language are Broca's area, Wernicke's area and the angular gyrus. Below we explain what each one consists of and how the brain and language are related.

The brain and language

One of the topics that has attracted more specialists and non-specialists of the neurosciences and cognitive sciences, has been how the human brain regulates linguistic and communicative activity.

Obviously, as in all the activities we perform, for language and communication to happen, the involvement of the brain is necessary. the involvement of the brain is necessary for language and communication to happen.. But this participation does not happen without a specific order, it follows a series of patterns depending on the action.

That is to say that, at the brain level, language is a process that follows a series of patterns whose regulation has been located in different areas. The neurologist Antonio Damasio (cited by Castaño, 2003) tells us that there are three main systems in charge of this. One of the systems is instrumental (in charge of execution), another is semantic (in charge of codification) and the other is an intermediate system that serves to mediate the two previous ones.

Areas of the brain specialized in language

Each of the brain systems that are responsible for regulating language act through the activity of different brain areas. Three of the most important areas are Broca's Area, Wernicke's Area and the Angular Circumvolution..

Broca's area

Broca's area is part of the instrumental language system. Broca's area is related to the ability to order phonemes to create words and then to order phonemes to create words and then sentences. Therefore, it is also linked to the use of verbs and other words necessary for interaction. When this area is damaged, there is also a syntactic difficulty (related to the order, combination and relationship between words).

It is called Broca's area after the person who initiated its study (Paul Broca) in 1861. What he did was to analyze the brain of a person who had had very significant difficulties in expressing himself verbally, while his understanding of language was apparently functional. He found a tumor in a part of the left cerebral hemisphere, and baptized the clinical picture as "aphemia". Since then, this area of the left cerebral hemisphere has been known as Broca's area and is associated with disorders in the faculty of language. is related to disorders in the expressive faculty of verbal language, e.g., "aphasia".for example, "Broca's aphasia".

Wernicke's area

Wernicke's area is also part of the instrumental language system. It helps to evoke and vocalize concepts, and it is also in charge of processing sounds to combine them into meaningful units. combine them to create units capable of meaning..

It is not directly responsible for regulating semantic activity (that of giving meaning to linguistic expressions), but for decoding phonemes. However, when there is damage to this brain area, the semantic field is affected as it produces difficulties in the discrimination and processing of sounds.

The regions that make up this area are related to two other brain areas responsible for regulating motor and premotor activity. Wernicke's area and the motor activity areas are connected through a direct corticocortical pathway and a corticosubcortical pathway. The first pathway regulates associative learning in a more conscious and voluntary dimension. in a more conscious and voluntary dimension; and the second is linked to automatic behaviors such as habits.

This area is located in the left hemisphere of the brain, around the Sylvian fissure and next to the insula cortex. It has been studied since the mid-19th century (so there are several proposals as to where it is located) and was named after the neurologist Carl Wernicke.

3. Angular convolution

The brain is covered by numerous folds or reliefs that have very important and not yet fully understood functions. These folds or reliefs are called gyri..

One of the gyri involved in the regulation of language is the angular gyrus, also known as the angular gyrus or Broadmann area 39 (AB39). In addition to language, this area is involved in episodic and semantic memory activity, mathematical skills, literacy and spatial attention.

Lesions in this area have been linked to semantic aphasia. Because of its relation to the comprehension activity of language and communication, many scientists consider this gyrus to be an extension or a part of Wernicke's area.

Bibliographical references:

• Castaño, J. (2003). Neurobiological basis of language and its alterations. Revista de Neurología, 36(8): 781-785.
• Rosselli, M., Ardila, A. & Bernal, B. (2015). Model of angular gyrus connectivity in language: meta-analysis of functional neuroimaging. Journal of Neurology, 60: 495-503.
• Trejo-Martinez, D., Jimenez, F., Marcos-Ortega, J., et al. (2007). Anatomical and functional aspects of Broca's area in functional neurosurgery. Revista Médica del Hospital General de México, 70(3): 141-149.