Paul Broca

Physician, anthropologist

• Born: June 28, 1824
• Place of Birth: Place of birth: Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Bordeaux, France
• Died: July 9, 1880
• Place of Death: Place of death: Paris, France

Education: University of Paris

Significance: Paul Broca was a pioneering physician and medical researcher credited with developments in neuroscience, physical anthropology, and cancer research. He is best-known for the discovery of the center of speech in the brain known the "Broca area."

Background

Paul Broca was born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in the Bordeaux region of France on June 28, 1824. His father, Benjamin, was a medical practitioner who served as a surgeon in Napoleon's army. Broca’s mother was the daughter of a Protestant clergyman and known for her keen intelligence. Broca received a Bachelier des letters (an undergraduate degree) when he was only sixteen. A year later, he enrolled in medical school at the University of Paris and graduated at age twenty—several years ahead of his peers.

Broca next completed a number of internships in various medical fields including urology, psychiatry, and surgery. By the age of twenty-four, his proficiency in medicine and medical research had earned him a professorship at the University of Paris along with a number of awards. His interest in the body and its functions was wide-ranging—his earliest research included work in cancer pathology, the study of bones and cartilage, and the causes of infant death. Broca was also considered an expert on the physiology of the brain, in particular the brain's limbic system, which controls emotions and some behavior, and cerebral aneurysms, potentially life-threatening weakened areas of blood vessels in the brain that swell and sometimes rupture.

Life's Work

Broca was also interested in how damage to the brain affects speech. Sometimes an injury or an illness leaves a patient with a limited ability or no ability to speak, a condition called aphasia. Broca suspected that a particular area of the brain was responsible for speech, which would explain why some brain-injured patients suffer from aphasia while others do not. Whether or not a brain-injured patient suffers from aphasia depends on the area and severity of the injury.

The opportunity to study the condition in-depth arose when Broca became aware of a patient named Louis Victor Leborgne (1809 – 1861). Leborgne had been admitted to Bictre, a mental hospital in Paris, when he was thirty years old. Although he could understand what others said to him and made consistent efforts to communicate, he was only able to utter one syllable—tan—which he often said twice in succession. Physicians believed that Leborgne’s condition had been brought about by his lifelong battle with epilepsy, and, for a long time, his chief medical complaint was the inability to utter more than one syllable. But in 1861, gangrene affected the left side of his body and additional medical care was required. Broca was called in to consult and was immediately intrigued by the condition suffered by Tan, as the man had come to be called.

After Tan's death from gangrene, Broca conducted an autopsy on his brain and discovered a large lesion on the left frontal region, an area that came to be known as "Broca's area." A few months later, Broca autopsied the brain of another patient with a similar condition, though this man had been able to speak about five words. This patient had a similar lesion in the same area. From these autopsies, Broca concluded that speech functions are localized in the brain and are independent of several other brain functions, such as comprehension and intelligence. This area of the brain also had nothing to do with the physical abilities required to produce sounds.

While Broca is generally credited with this discovery, the matter is not without controversy. Around the same time that Broca was suggesting publically that the left frontal portion of the brain controls speech, another physician was attempting to publish a paper making nearly the same claim. This physician, Gustave Dax, said he based his paper on work his father, Dr. Marc Dax, had done during the 1820s and 1830s, work the younger Dax claimed had been unjustly ignored by the medical profession. However, despite the controversy, most scientists found Broca's more detailed autopsies to be more authoritative than Dax's observational techniques. They therefore credit Broca with determining that damage to the left side of the front portion of the brain was responsible for aphasia.

In addition to this discovery, Broca furthered his study of the brain by developing more than two dozen devices used for measuring the skull and brain as well as standards of measurement for use in this research. He also established several organizations to further anthropological study, including the Anthropological Society of Paris (1859), the Revue d'Anthropologie (1872), and the School of Anthropology in Paris (1876). Broca wrote prolifically about his research, served in the French Senate, and was a member of the French Academy. He died in Paris on July 9, 1880, at age 56, most likely from a brain aneurysm.

Impact

Broca had a long-lasting impact on several fields of medical science. He conducted definitive research that helped define the brain location responsible for the function of speech. He was also responsible for groundbreaking work establishing the science of physical anthropology. He pioneered several concepts in cancer research, including the idea that some cancers are hereditary, something he hypothesized from observing a pattern of cancers in his wife's family.

Despite the lasting contributions Broca made to understanding the connection between speech and the area of the brain that now bears his name, his legacy has included some controversy. Resistance to continuing to honor him by naming buildings after him, for example, has arisen in at least some scientific circles. This is based on his involvement in physical anthropology, which used characteristics such as cranial size to rank human races and establish a hierarchy. Others note that although Broca did not think all races were equal, he did not believe this justified slavery. It was also noted that although Broca had these theories, his work in them was not a significant part of the body of work left behind and was little known until twenty-first scientists specifically looked for it.

Personal

Broca married the daughter of a wealthy Paris physician named Dr. Jean Guillaume Auguste Lugol. Her name was Augustine. The couple had two sons who grew up to work in the medical profession: Auguste was a professor of pediatric surgery, and Andre was a professor of medical physics. Broca was known for his kindness and generosity.

Bibliography

Boraud, Thomas and Stephanie J. Forkel. "Paul Broca: from fame to shame?" Brain, vol 145, no. 3, pp. 801-804, doi.org/10.1093/brain/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

"Death of Paul Broca." The New York Times, July 1880. Web. 14 June 2016. Dronkers, N.F. et al. "Paul Broca's Historic Cases: High Resolution MR Imaging of the Brains of Leborgne and Lelong." Brain: A Journal of Neurology, April 2007. Web. 14 June 2016.

Kean, Sam. "Today Was the Worst Day of Paul Broca’s Life." Psychology Today, March 2013. Web. 14 June 2016.

Konnikova, Maria. "The Man Who Couldn't Speak and How He Revolutionized Psychology." Scientific American, March 2013. Web. 14 June 2016.

Krush, Anne J. "Contributions of Pierre Paul Broca to Cancer Genetics." Digital Commons@University of Nebraska-Lincoln, January 1997. Web. 14 June 2016.

"Paul Broca (1824-80)." Brought to Life, Science Museum of London, n.d. Web 14 June 2016.

Sabbatini, Renato M.E., PhD. "Paul Pierre Broca: A Brief Biography." Brain & Mind Magazine, June 1997. Web. 14 June, 2016.

Teter, Theresa. "Pierre-Paul Broca." Muskingum University, n.d., Web. 14 June 2016.