Broca's Region: From Action to Language

Nobuyuki Nishitani 1 , Martin Schürmann 2 , Katrin Amunts 3 and Riitta Hari 2, ,4 1 Cognitive Functions Section, Department of Rehabilitation for Sensory Functions, Research Institute, National Rehabilitation Centre for Persons with Disabilities, Tokorozawa, Japan; 2 Brain Research Unit, Low Temperature Laboratory, Helsinki University of Technology, Espoo, Finland; 3 Institute of Medicine, Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany; and (4)Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland; and 4 Department of Clinical Neurophysiology, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland hari{at}neuro.hut.fi Broca’s region, classically considered a motor speech-production area, is involved in action understanding and imitation. It also seems to help in sequencing of actions. Broca’s region might have evolved for interindividual communication, both by gestures and speech.