How neurolinguistic ideas have changed
Many established ideas about neurolinguistics – in particular, roles of the traditional ‘language areas’ (Broca’s area, Wernicke’s area) in the left hemisphere of the brain - have been challenged and in some cases overturned by recent evidence. Probably the most important recent findings are 1) that extensive networks involving areas remote from the traditional language areas are deeply involved in language use, 2) that the language areas are also involved in the processing of non-language information, such as some aspects of music http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgKFeuzGEns, and 3) that the correlations of particular areas of the brain with particular language impairments are much poorer than had been thought. This new information has become available because of major improvements in our ability to see what is happening in the brain when people speak or listen, and from the accumulation and analysis of many years of detailed aphasia test data.