Brain, Vol. 122, No. 6, 1200-1202,
June 1999
© 1999 Oxford University Press
Book Reviews |
APHASIA IN ATYPICAL POPULATIONS.
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Clinica Universitaria de Neurologia, Lisbon, Portugal
Was Leborgne—the first Broca's patient—a member of a typical population? As far as we can learn from Broca's writings (Broca, 1861
) he was a patternmaker until the age of 30 when he became aphasic. The only statement concerning his background is that `he could not write because his right hand was paralysed'. Maybe we can assume that he was right handed, a French speaker, not bilingual and had a good hearing because he understood some questions which he answered with gestures that were often apraxic.
The nature of the lesion is uncertain (Castaigne et al., 1980) but yet this case represents the major first step in more than 100 years of research on aphasia. Throughout history our attention was first focused on the heart (Gross, 1995), then on the ventricles and on the skull (Finger, 1994), and, presently, on the brain. Many models can orientate
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