Having identified these four components, it is tempting to conclude that specific
aspects of language ability can be accorded specific locations in the brain. This is
called the localization view and it has been used to suggest that the brain activity
involved in hearing a word, understanding it, then saying it, would follow a definite
pattern. The word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke’s area. This signal is then
transferred via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area where preparations are made to
produce it. A signal is then sent to part of the motor cortex to physically articulate
the word.
This is certainly an oversimplified version of what may actually take place, but it is
consistent with much of what we understand about simple language processing in the
brain. It is probably best to think of any proposal concerning processing pathways in
the brain as some form of metaphor that may turn out to be inadequate once we learn
more about how the brain functions. The “pathway” metaphor seems quite appealing