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Editorial

150 Years after Leborgne: why is Paul Broca so important

in the history of neuropsychology?
Roberto Cubelli* and Pierluigi De Bastiani
Department of Cognitive Science and Education, Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento, Italy

On April 18, 1861, Paul Pierre Broca (Fig. 1) reported to the

members of the Societe Anthropologique de Paris the case of
Leborgne, the famous Monsieur Tan, and proposed the localization of the site of articulate speech (Broca, 1861a). After his
first observation, Broca had the opportunity to study other
patients with a selective impairment of verbal production. He
confirmed the causal role of the frontal cerebral lesion (Broca,
1861b) and concluded that we speak with the left hemisphere (Broca, 1865).
Brocas memoirs prompted a discussion on the localization
of language functions in the academic world and immediately
inspired new research and studies in different disciplines (see
Harris, 1999). Since then, in almost all papers and textbooks,
the first clinical observation reported by Broca has been
considered the event representing the official birth of neuropsychology (e.g., Denes and Pizzamiglio, 1999). Now, 150 years
later we wonder what was Brocas ground-breaking contribution. Why was the case of Leborgne such a seminal landmark in
the investigation of the relationship between mind and brain?
Broca introduced the term aphemia to designate an
acquired language disorder, but following Trousseau (1864),
the word aphasia has been preferred (aphemia is sometimes
used to refer to a specific form of anarthria). The patient Leborgne showed the typical picture of monophasia (Lebrun,
1986), a variant of global aphasia (Pearce, 2009) characterized
by recurrent utterances and impaired verbal comprehension,
but not the clinical syndrome which now we label Brocas
aphasia (Taylor Sarno, 1981). The third frontal convolution,
which Broca identified as the seat of the articulated speech, is
called Brocas area, but it has been demonstrated that it is
partially independent from Brocas aphasia (e.g., Mohr et al.,
1978) and that it plays a functional role in language

Fig. 1 e Paul Pierre Broca (1824e1880).

processing different from that suggested by Broca (Schubotz

and Fiebach, 2006; Grodzinsky and Santi, 2008; Amunts et al.,
2010). The association between speech disorders and frontal
lobe lesions had been already advanced by Bouillaud (1825) and
the hypothesis of left hemisphere dominance for language was
first proposed by Dax in 1836 (see Cubelli and Montagna, 1994).
In sum, most of the Brocas claims and suggestions had already
been anticipated or have been subsequently disproved.
Why therefore is Broca still considered the founder of
neuropsychology? His contribution was essentially methodological. Well within the organological approach of Gall, he
overcame the limits of phrenology and introduced a method
for studying the neural basis of cognitive processes which
immediately resulted more effective. Indeed, what we know
about the localization of cognitive functions derived from the
anatomicaleclinical correlative method introduced by Broca.

* Corresponding author. Department of Cognitive Science and Education, Center for Mind/Brain Sciences, University of Trento,
Corso Bettini 31, I-38068 Rovereto (Trento), Italy.
E-mail address: roberto.cubelli@unitn.it (R. Cubelli).
0010-9452/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Srl. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2010.11.004

c o r t e x 4 7 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 4 6 e1 4 7

Broca moved forwards the theoretical fractionation of the

mental processes started by Gall. For example, Gall was the
first who divided memory into domain-specific, independent
modules (for words, spatial information, faces, numbers and
objects) to be localizable in the brain. Broca went further and
subdivided verbal memory into articulate speech and auditory
comprehension.
Broca capitalised on the legacy of Gall and proposed
a very effective method to study the relationship between
brain structure and cognitive functions, avoiding
ungrounded speculations. It is for his revolutionary methodological contributions that Broca merits to be remembered as the founder of neuropsychology. We at Cortex
wish to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his report on the
case of Leborgne.

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