Pierre Paul Broca

views updated

Pierre Paul Broca

1824-1880

French physician and neurologist who is regarded as the founder of physical anthropology. While serving as a surgeon in Paris, he was primarily responsible for the establishment of the Institute of Anthropology. An autopsy on a patient who had been unable to speak for many years led Broca to suggest that a specific area of the brain was the "motor center" for speech. This area was later designated as Broca's convolution, or Broca's center, and the speech disorder was called "aphasia."