The Brodmann areas originated in 1909 by scientist Korbinian Brodmann after publishing the first cytoarchitectonic map of a human brain. Cytoarchitecture is a method used to divide the cerebral cortex of the brain into Brodmann areas. The cytoarchitectonic map separated the cerebral cortex into 43 areas as a way to study and understand the structure of the human brain. Brodmann developed this idea of using a parcellation approach for areas of the brain by studying cell distribution in grey matter, structure of the cortical layers and neuron density. This idea was founded by examining the human brain compared to human and non-human primates. The human brain areas are labelled 1 through 52, however not all are shown on his illustration. Brodmann found gaps in specific areas that are not distinguishable in the human brain yet they appear in other species. Brodmann labelled these unseen areas as 12-16 and 48-51 on the human brain map. These numbers are used for examining the functional activity in the different areas of the brain. The Brodmann areas that are relevant to language include Broca's area and Wernicke's area, where Broca's area is responsible for language production and Wernicke's area is responsible for language comprehension.
Language
Brodmann area 22 combined with Brodmann area 42 form Wernicke’s area in the superior temporal gyrus in the temporal lobe. Using cytoarchitectonics, BA 22 is located in the middle temporal gyrus which separates it from the primary and secondary auditory cortex. BA 22 is connected with nonverbal sound processing in the right hemisphere of the brain associated with activation in the auditory cortex. More functions associated with language in Brodmann area 22 include producing sentences, semantic processing, and processing of complex sounds. This area of the human brain supports lexical semantic processing and is responsible for language comprehension and production. Wernicke's area is shown to support lexical-semantics because lesions to this area result in difficulties displaying word selection during production of language.
Wernicke's Aphasia
Because Wernicke’s area supports language comprehension in the temporal lobe, lesions to the left auditory cortex, specifically in BA 22, results in Wernicke’s aphasia. Wernicke’s aphasia, also known as receptive aphasia, is a language disorder characterized as having difficulty comprehending language. This disorder varies in outcomes based on severity and localization of the brain damage, which is mostly commonly due to having a stroke. Patients diagnosed with Wernicke's aphasia are shown to have normal intonation and rate of speech, however have difficulty understanding different words of a language. Many individuals have poor awareness when making errors in speech, but are typically able to produce normal sentence structures when speaking. These sentences produced by patients with Wernicke's aphasia are often difficult for others to understand because of the problems with word selection and comprehension. These difficulties are shown at a lexical level, for example patients often struggle with naming figures due to accessing words from the lexicon.
are based on cytoarchitectonic parcellation using numbering associated with locations in the brain to illustrate functional activity. BA 22 is separated from the primary and secondary auditory cortex by using cytoarchitectonic parcellation. Connectivity-based parcellations in BA 22 can be broken into three subparts: posterior, middle, and anterior subparts of the superior temporal gyrus. Using connectivity-based parcellations involves connections between white fibers to different areas in the brain. Cytoarchitectonic parecellations and connectivity-based parcellations are two ways of breaking the brain down to the structure and the connection fibers of Brodmann Area 22.
