What part of the brain controls receptive speech?
Today, Wernicke's area in the left upper part of the temporal lobe is widely recognized as an important brain area for receptive language.
Your brain's major speech centers are located in the temporal and parietal lobes on the dominant side. Additional contributions also come from the frontal lobe, toward the front of your head. These different parts of the brain all work together to influence your ability to speak.
The cortical regions of the brain traditionally associated with the comprehension of language are Wernicke's area and Broca's area.
Wernicke's aphasia is another name for receptive aphasia. It happens when the area of your brain that controls language called the Wernicke area is damaged. This condition is also called sensory aphasia or fluent aphasia. People with this type of aphasia have damage to their brain's temporal lobe.
Receptive aphasia, also known as Wernicke's aphasia, generally reflects damage to the auditory association cortices in the posterior temporal lobe, a region referred to as Wernicke's area.
As a result of a lesion in Broca area, there is a breakdown between one's thoughts and one's language abilities. Thus, patients often feel that they know what they wish to say but are unable to produce the words. That is, they are unable to translate their mental images and representations to words.
Broca's area is a key component of a complex speech network, interacting with the flow of sensory information from the temporal cortex, devising a plan for speaking and passing that plan along to the motor cortex, which controls the movements of the mouth.
The classical model of neural basis of language consists of the Broca's area (the motor speech center), the Wernicke's area (the sensory speech center), and the arcuate fasciculus (AF) connecting the above two cortical areas.
With regard to language functions, studies show that the cerebellum determines verbal fluency (both semantic and formal) expressive and receptive grammar processing, the ability to identify and correct language mistakes, and writing skills.
The cerebrum is involved in all the major activities of the brain such as controlling movement and cognitive processes. Memory, thinking, emotions, movement of limbs and body, language processing, etc. is regulated by the cerebrum.
What are Broca's area and Wernicke's area?
Broca's and Wernicke's areas are cortical areas specialized for production and comprehension, respectively, of human language. Broca's area is found in the left inferior frontal gyrus and Wernicke's area is located in the left posterior superior temporal gyrus.
When someone has specific difficulty retrieving words, it's called anomic aphasia, or anomia. We will examine what anomic aphasia is, explain how you treat it with speech therapy and provide tips for how you or a loved one can better communicate when dealing with this disorder.

Aphasia is a neurological symptom that affects a person's ability to communicate or understand verbal information. Doctors refer to these as “expressive” or “receptive” language abilities. Depending on which areas of the brain are affected, a person can have an expressive aphasia, a receptive aphasia, or both.
Aphasia is a communication disorder that makes it hard to use words. It can affect your speech, writing, and ability to understand language. Aphasia results from damage or injury to language parts of the brain. It's more common in older adults, particularly those who have had a stroke.
Your health care provider will likely give you physical and neurological exams, test your strength, feeling and reflexes, and listen to your heart and the vessels in your neck. An imaging test, usually an MRI or CT scan, can be used to quickly identify what's causing the aphasia.
The recommended treatment for aphasia is usually speech and language therapy. Sometimes aphasia improves on its own without treatment. This treatment is carried out by a speech and language therapist (SLT). If you were admitted to hospital, there should be a speech and language therapy team there.
In most cases, expressive aphasia is caused by a stroke in Broca's area or the surrounding vicinity. Broca's area is in the lower part of the premotor cortex in the language dominant hemisphere and is responsible for planning motor speech movements.
If damage encompasses both Wernicke's and Broca's areas, global aphasia can occur. In this case, all aspects of speech and language are affected. Patients can say a few words at most and understand only a few words and phrases. They usually cannot carry out commands or name objects.
People with Wernicke's aphasia are often unaware of their spoken mistakes. Another hallmark of this type of aphasia is difficulty understanding speech. The most common type of nonfluent aphasia is Broca's aphasia (see figure). People with Broca's aphasia have damage that primarily affects the frontal lobe of the brain.
Damage to Wernicke's area can lead to disorders associated with speech and language such as Wernicke's aphasia. This condition causes difficulty with understanding language and forming meaningful sentences.
What is the Wernicke's area responsible for?
[2] Because the Wernicke area is responsible for the comprehension of written and spoken language, damage to this area results in a fluent but receptive aphasia. Receptive aphasia may be best described as one who is unable to comprehend/express written or spoken language.
Tongue twisters increase the activity of brain cells in Broca's area, which controls the articulation of speech. Create tongue twisters for review material, or just engage students in age-old tongue twisters to stimulate brain activity.
Expressive aphasia is when you know what you want to say, but you have trouble saying or writing your thoughts. Receptive aphasia affects your ability to read and understand speech. You can hear what people say or see words on a page, but you have trouble making sense of what they mean.
The hypoglossal nerve helps you move your tongue. It enables you to speak, swallow and push substances around in your mouth. Conditions affecting hypoglossal nerve function include stroke, cancer and ALS.
Acquired neurogenic communication disorders include aphasia, dysarthria, apraxia, and cognitive-communication impairments.
The cranial nerves relevant to speech are the fifth (trigeminal), seventh (facial), eighth (vestibulocochlear), ninth (glossopharyngeal), tenth (vagus), and twelfth (hypoglossal).
Neuroimaging and lesion studies have provided strong evidence that the cerebellum is an integral part of the speech production network, though its precise role in the control of speech remains unclear.
Specifically, the right posterior lateral lobules VI, Crus I, and Crus II of the cerebellum are associated with phonological and semantic processes, as shown through verb generation tasks, verbal working memory tasks, verbal fluency tasks.
Most descriptions of speech disorders due to basal ganglia damage refer to PD. Monotonous loudness and pitch, imprecise articulation, hypophonia and dysphonia, and short rushes of speech constitute the main features of parkinsonian hypokinetic dysarthria [1, 2].
Common causes include: stroke, severe head injury and brain tumours. Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis and motor neurone disease. cerebral palsy and Down's syndrome.
Does the frontal lobe control language comprehension?
Broca's area, located in the frontal lobe of the brain, is linked to speech production, and recent studies have shown that it also plays a significant role in language comprehension.
The temporal lobes are also believed to play an important role in processing affect/emotions, language, and certain aspects of visual perception. The dominant temporal lobe, which is the left side in most people, is involved in understanding language and learning and remembering verbal information.
Wernicke's aphasia or receptive aphasia is when someone is able to speak well and use long sentences, but what they say may not make sense. They may not know that what they're saying is wrong, so may get frustrated when people don't understand them.
- Use gestures when you speak. ...
- Write down key words while speaking. ...
- Talk about things that are relevant to "right now". ...
- Don't shout if the person isn't hard-of-hearing. ...
- Slow your speech a little when talking. ...
- Be close enough to maintain eye contact.
Broca's Aphasia (expressive)
Injury to the frontal regions of the left hemisphere impacts how words are strung together to form complete sentences.
Broca's area is a key component of a complex speech network, interacting with the flow of sensory information from the temporal cortex, devising a plan for speaking and passing that plan along to the motor cortex, which controls the movements of the mouth.
Wernicke's aphasia or receptive aphasia is when someone is able to speak well and use long sentences, but what they say may not make sense. They may not know that what they're saying is wrong, so may get frustrated when people don't understand them. The features of Wernicke's aphasia are: Impaired reading and writing.
Individuals with Broca's aphasia have trouble speaking fluently but their comprehension can be relatively preserved. This type of aphasia is also known as non-fluent or expressive aphasia.
Essentially, Wernicke's area works to make sure the language makes sense, whilst Broca's area helps to ensure the language is produced in a fluent way. This understanding of language was later expanded upon by neurologist Norman Geschwind, who proposed what would be known as the Wernicke-Geschwind model.
Broca's area is also known as the motor speech area. It is near the motor cortex and utilized in speech production, located in the inferior frontal gyrus. This area regulates breathing patterns while speaking and vocalizations required for normal speech.
What is the difference between Broca's and Wernicke's aphasia?
People with Wernicke's aphasia are often unaware of their spoken mistakes. Another hallmark of this type of aphasia is difficulty understanding speech. The most common type of nonfluent aphasia is Broca's aphasia (see figure). People with Broca's aphasia have damage that primarily affects the frontal lobe of the brain.
The brain region known as the Wernicke area, shown in blue, supports a critical component of speech production, referred to as phonologic retrieval, in which the phonemes to be articulated, and their temporal order, are represented mentally.
Expressive aphasia is when you know what you want to say, but you have trouble saying or writing your thoughts. Receptive aphasia affects your ability to read and understand speech. You can hear what people say or see words on a page, but you have trouble making sense of what they mean.
In Wernicke's aphasia, the ability to grasp the meaning of spoken words and sentences is impaired, while the ease of producing connected speech is not very affected. Therefore Wernicke's aphasia is also referred to as 'fluent aphasia' or 'receptive aphasia'.
The key difference between Broca's and Wernicke's area is that Broca's area is a part of the cerebral cortex that helps to ensure that language is produced in a fluent way, while Wernicke's area is a part of the cerebral cortex that makes sure the language makes sense.
Broca's aphasia is usually due to large frontal lobe damage, including Broca's area. However, damage just to Broca's area most likely results in apraxia.
Broca's aphasia is also called non-fluent or expressive aphasia. Patients with Broca's aphasia have partial loss of their language ability. They have difficulty speaking fluently and their speech may be limited to a few words at a time.
The most common cause of aphasia is brain damage resulting from a stroke — the blockage or rupture of a blood vessel in the brain. Loss of blood to the brain leads to brain cell death or damage in areas that control language.