Broca's Aphasia Trivia Quiz

Answer: left hemisphere, anterior to the Sylvian fissure

The left hemisphere of the brain seems to control most language functions, including speaking, writing and comprehension. The right hemisphere handles more spatial things, including the recognition of letters and melodies. Broca's area - which is, specifically, the third frontal convolution in the left hemisphere - is in a region of the brain responsible for most of a person's language functions.

Answer: M. Tan

M. Tan's true identity is unknown; he was called "Tan" by the workers at the hospital where he died, because "tan" was the only thing he ever said. (He thus suffered from severe Broca's aphasia.) When he died in 1861, Broca dissected his brain and found a tumor in the left hemisphere (presumably the cause of the aphasia).

This fact, as well as data from subsequent autopsies of aphasics, led Broca to conclude that "the faculty for articulate language" was housed in the left hemisphere of the brain.

This was the first instance of a language disorder providing clues about how language is produced in the brain; this would later become a fruitful field of study in linguistics.

Answer: cannot recall words to communicate; broken and jumbled speech

Some Broca's aphasics can still make themselves understood, although their speech is slow and halting. Others lose the ability even to pronounce different words; instead, they repeat one word (such as "tan" or "toto") over and over again. Their intonation is generally flat - they do not raise and lower their voices as people do in normal conversation.

The aphasia affects gestures and writing as well as speech, so sufferers have great trouble communicating.

Answer: The car was hit by the tree.

"The girl kissed the boy," "The banana that the man is eating is yellow," and "The bird flies in the sky" can all be understood without analyzing the grammar of the sentences. Broca's aphasics are not stupid, nor are they born aphasic. They know that girls kiss boys, bananas are yellow (and are often eaten by men), and birds fly in the sky. Sentences like "The car was hit by the tree," however, can only be understood through the syntax of the sentence.

The car isn't hitting a tree by the roadside, as one might expect if given the words "car hit tree" and told that they made a sentence - instead, the tree is hitting the car, perhaps in the midst of a storm or an poorly executed felling operation.

The "shortcuts" that Broca's aphasics use to understand sentences without parsing them, do not work here.

Answer: Yes

Although their comprehension can sometimes be murky (as in the example in Question 4), Broca's aphasics can generally follow conversation around them. It helps if there is little or no background noise, and if the sentences use very simple syntax.

Answer: The right side - the arm, leg, or right side of the face.

Broca's area is near the motor-control areas of the left hemisphere of the brain, which controls the right side of the body as well as most language functions. If neighboring regions to Broca's area are damaged as well, the aphasia can thus be accompanied by damage to right-side physical ability.

Answer: conduction aphasia

"Motor aphasia" and "anterior aphasia" describe the location of Broca's area within the brain; "expressive aphasia" describes the overall effect of Broca's aphasia - that is, a loss of fluency and expressive ability. Conduction aphasia is something entirely different: here, the connection between Broca's area and Wernicke's area is severed. Sufferers generally have fairly good comprehension and expression, but cannot, for example, repeat what they have just heard.

Answer: False

Many aphasics do slowly recover their language ability as their brains - remarkably resilient organs - heal from their injuries. Speech therapy and the support of friends and family members help immeasurably in the healing process. Most will never regain the level of language function they enjoyed before their injury, but any improvement in their ability to communicate, improves their quality of life.

Answer: Yes

Sadly, one of the characteristics of Broca's aphasia is that its sufferers know that they have a problem. I, personally, cannot imagine the frustration of having feelings and ideas to express, and knowing that, despite my best efforts, I could not express them.

Some other language disorders, such as Wernicke's aphasia, are more merciful: Wernicke's sufferers are oblivious to the fact that their speech is incomprehensible.

Answer: Normal Broca's Aphasia symptoms, but with ASL instead of spoken language.

ASL, and other sign languages, are just as "real" and organic as English, Spanish or Chinese - they aren't just collections of hand signals. The same areas of the brain regulate vocabulary, grammar, etc. for a user of ASL as for a speaker of any other language. Thus, Broca's aphasia has the same terrible consequences for a deaf person as for a hearing one.

Thanks for taking this quiz - I hope you've learned as much as I did writing it. I am particularly indebted to Steven Pinker's excellent book "The Language Instinct."