title: Broca's Aphemia: The Tortuous Story of a Nonaphasic Nonparalytic Disorder of Speech.
abstract: Broca coined the neologism "aphemia" to describe a syndrome consisting of a loss of the ability to speak without impairment of language and paralysis of the faciolingual territories in actions unrelated to speech, such as protruding the tongue or pursing the lips. Upon examining the brains of patients with aphemia, Broca concluded that the minimum possible lesion responsible for aphemia localized to the posterior left inferior frontal gyrus and lower portion of the middle frontal gyrus. A review of Broca's writings led us to conclude that (a) Broca localized speech, not language, to the left hemisphere, (b) Broca's aphemia is a form of apraxia, (c) Broca's aphemia is not, therefore, a terminological forerunner of aphasia, and (d) Broca was an outspoken equipotentialist concerning the cerebral localization of language. Broca's claim about the role of the left hemisphere in the organization of speech places him as the legitimate forebear of the two most outstanding achievements of Liepmann's work, namely, the concepts of apraxia and of a left hemisphere specialization for action.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neuroscience , D'Or Institute for Research & Education (IDOR) , Botafogo , Rio de Janeiro , Brazil.|b Department of Neurology , Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Uni-Rio) , Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: de Oliveira-Souza
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neuroscience , D'Or Institute for Research & Education (IDOR) , Botafogo , Rio de Janeiro , Brazil.
authors.forename: Jorge
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moll
authors.affiliation: a Department of Neuroscience , D'Or Institute for Research & Education (IDOR) , Botafogo , Rio de Janeiro , Brazil.
authors.forename: Fernanda
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tovar-Moll
mesh_terms: D001039:Aphasia, Broca / Q000209:etiology / Q000266:history*; D001072:Apraxias / Q000145:classification / Q000266:history*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D034462:Dissent and Disputes / Q000266:history; D005260:Female; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000473:pathology; D013060:Speech
keywords: Broca; Finkelnburg; Liepmann; Trousseau; aphasia; aphemia; apraxia; asymbolia; hemispheric dominance; language; speech