EPONYMania: Some reasons why Broca's Area should be renamed Hood's Area.

Monday 14th of September 2015, 13:00 - 14:00

 

Professor Harry Whitaker, Department of Psychology, Northern Michigan University

 

On July 28, 1824, a relatively obscure Scottish country doctor, Alexander Hood, published a case study that, retrospectively, is likely the best description of the initial language errors and pattern of recovery of Broca’s Aphasia in the 19th century, complete with the putative localization in the left frontal lobe. Hood’s case and his rather modern neurolinguistics conclusions will be presented; time permitting, some comments on why Wernicke’s Area should be Meynert’s Area will be offered.

 

About the speaker:

Professor of Psychology, Northern Michigan University, since 1997. Ph.D. is from the University of California at Los Angeles in Linguistics. Founding Editor of the journals, Brain & Language (1974) and Brain & Cognition (1982). Currently Consulting Editor for the journal The Mental Lexicon. Teaches courses in Cognitive Neuroscience, Individual Differences and History of Psychology. Elected Fellow of the American Psychological Association’s Division 6 (Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology) in 1986 and elected Fellow of APA’s Division 26 (History) in 1997. Area editor - Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology and Language of the forthcoming International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences 2nd edition (Elesevier, 2013); Editor (with C. Smith and S. Finger) of Brain, Mind and Medicine: Neuroscience in the 18th Century (Springer, 2007), Editor (with B. Stemmer) Handbook of the Neuroscience of Language (Elsevier, 2008) and Editor of the Concise Encyclopedia of Brain and Language (Elsevier, 2009) and author of about 125 articles, book chapters and reviews in cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychology, neurolinguistics, neurology and the history of psychology. Outside interests include chartering sail and power boats (recently in Chesapeake Bay, S.E. canals of France, Florida’s Gulf Coast, Scotland’s Caledonian Canal and the British Virgin Islands), classical and country music, passable chess, backgammon, science fiction movies and creating papier maché masks.