Depending on which link in this chain is damaged, a different form of aphasia occurs. Damage to the angular gyrus leaves the person able to speak and understand but unable to read. Damage to Wernicke's area disrupts understanding. Damage to Broca's area disrupts speaking. Discuss brain plasticity and what it reveals about brain reorganization.
Plasticity refers to the brain's capacity for modification.
Our brains are most plastic when we are young children, before cortical regions' functions become fixed. The case of an adult male whose deteriorating left brain hemisphere was removed in childhood provides an extreme example of plasticity. Now a college graduate, this man testifies to the brain's extraordinary powers of reorganization when damaged before it is fully developed. Module 5 of The Brain series 12. Describe research on the split brain and discuss what it reveals regarding normal brain functioning.