BROCAS APHASIA FOLLOWING DAMAGE TO WERNICKES AREA - FOR OR AGAINST TRADITIONAL APHASIOLOGY

Classic aphasiology has been challenged by studies that have employed cranial computed tomography to test predicted anatomic-behavioral correlations. We treated a patient who developed a classic Broca's aphasia but whose computed tomographic scan revealed damage to Wernicke's area, thus seeming to contradict the principles of traditional aphasiology. However, subsequent information obtained by magnetic resonance imaging, intracarotid amobarbital (Amytal) testing, and electrophysiologic studies, including cortical stimulation, demonstrated that the brain-behavior correlations in this patient can be understood in terms of the formulations of traditional aphasiology.