Wernicke's area [SEP] named after
named after Carl Wernicke, a German neurologist and psychiatrist who, in 1874, hypothesized a link between the left posterior section of the superior temporal gyrus and the reflexive mimicking of words and their syllables that associated the sensory and motor images of spoken words. He did this on the basis of the location of brain injuries that caused aphasia. Receptive aphasia in which such abilities are preserved is also known as Wernicke's aphasia. In this condition there is a major impairment of language comprehension, while speech retains a natural-sounding rhythm
speech. As such, Wernicke's Area (a.k.a. Wernicke's Speech Area) has been named for the scientist.
Life.
Wernicke was born in Tarnowitz, a small town in Upper Silesia, Prussia, now Tarnowskie Gory, Poland. He received "his secondary education at the gymnasium in Oppeln".
After he earned his medical degree at the University of Breslau (1870), he worked in Breslau at Allerheiligen Hospital as an assistant to an ophthamology professor Ostrid Foerster for six months. After serving some