ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the historical background of studies of language and the human brain, studies which for many years were primarily focused on case studies of people who had acquired brain damage which affected their use of language. It also address more recent developments in the ways that these linguistic processes can be investigated in healthy human brains. The Boston classification system builds on the models of aphasia which were developed by Broca, Wernicke and Lichtheim. Implicit in this approach is the concept that language can be localised in the human brain, and that different profiles of language deficits are related to distinctly different patterns of brain damage. The cognitive neuropsychology approach to aphasia has been tremendously influential in the understanding of aphasia and the ways that human language is implemented in the human brain. In addition to speech and language problems that are associated with damage to the brain – known as acquired disorders of speech and language.
