Study Adds to Understanding of Language and the Brain

According to the article, one such belief is that there is a separation of language tasks between two very different parts of the brain; one is Broca's area at the front and the other is Wernicke's area farther back in the brain. The belief is that Broca's area is responsible for speaking and that Wernicke's area is responsible for comprehending. However, the new study shows that Broca's area is involved in both speaking and comprehension. Neil Sahin says "this shows how parts of the brain perform more than one task. Because here's an example of one relatively small part of the brain that's doing three very different things at three different times, but all within the space of a quarter of a second."

I have studied linguistics for three years, but it is difficult to explain why all children can speak mother tongue and how Broca's area and Wernicke's area affect to language acquisition. I learned from this article that Broca's area is not only responsible for speaking, but also responsible for comprehending. Learning linguistics is like a mystery tour.

http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/2010-01-19-voa4.cfm