Broca's patient
In April 1861 Louis Victor Leborgne, aged 51, was moved to the surgical ward of the Bicêtre hospital in Paris, where Paul Broca examined him. For 21 years he had been able to say only one syllable, "tan", yet he understood what was said to him and answered with gestures. He died six days later.
Paul Broca, photographed by Pierre PetitWikimedia Commons, Pierre Petit, Public domain (Paul Broca by Pierre Petit.png)
At the autopsy Broca found a soft cavity in the back of the third frontal convolution of the left hemisphere. He showed the brain to the Anthropological Society the next day. After more cases he wrote in 1865 that "we speak with the left hemisphere". The brain is still kept in Paris.
Broca's area, the back of the left inferior frontal gyrus, in redWikimedia Commons, Database Center for Life Science (BodyParts3D), CC BY-SA 2.1 JP (Broca's area - lateral view.png)
Sources
- Paul Broca, Remarques sur le siège de la faculté du langage articulé, suivies d'une observation d'aphémie, Bulletin de la Société anatomique de Paris 36 (1861): 330-357.
- Paul Broca, Sur le siège de la faculté du langage articulé, Bulletin de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris 6 (1865): 377-393.
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