Study Adds to Understanding of Language and the Brain

''Here's an example of one relatively small part of the brain that's doing three very different things at three different times, but all within the space of a quarter of a second.'' Transcript of radio broadcast:

19 January 2010

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

A new study suggests that tthe brain is even more complex than scientists have recognizedA new study of the brain is helping scientists better understand how humans process language. The study is being done in San Diego, Boston and New York.

One of the patients is a woman with epilepsy. Doctors are monitoring Denise Harris to see if she is a good candidate for an operation that could stop her seizures. They are monitoring her through wire electrodes implanted in her brain.

But while she is in the hospital, she is also helping scientists understand how the brain works with language. The study centers on a part of the frontal lobe called Broca's area. Pierre Paul Broca was a nineteenth century French doctor. He first recognized the big part that this small area plays in language.

The electrode implants have shown that the area very quickly processes three different language functions. Eric Halgren at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine is one of the main investigators. He says they found different regions doing, at different times, different processes all within a centimeter.