Modern Mysteries

Identity of famous 19th-century brain found

By T.K. Randall
January 30, 2013 ·  4 comments

Image Credit: sxc.hu The story begins with an anonymous patient who was unable to speak and was admitted to the Bicetre Hospital outside Paris in 1840. His condition deteriorated over the next 20 years, but before his death he met with famous physician Paul Broca who took an interest in his case. After the man died, Broca performed an autopsy and found a lesion in one part of the brain, a discovery that would lead him to conclude that this was the part of the brain responsible for speech.

For years the identity of the mysterious patient whose brain lead to this breakthrough has remained a mystery, but now scientists have finally been able to put a name to the brain - Monsieur Louis Leborgne, a craftsman from France who had battled epilepsy his entire life.[!gad]The story begins with an anonymous patient who was unable to speak and was admitted to the Bicetre Hospital outside Paris in 1840. His condition deteriorated over the next 20 years, but before his death he met with famous physician Paul Broca who took an interest in his case. After the man died, Broca performed an autopsy and found a lesion in one part of the brain, a discovery that would lead him to conclude that this was the part of the brain responsible for speech.

For years the identity of the mysterious patient whose brain lead to this breakthrough has remained a mystery, but now scientists have finally been able to put a name to the brain - Monsieur Louis Leborgne, a craftsman from France who had battled epilepsy his entire life.

Source: Discovery News | Comments (4)

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