Katharina Buczek
According to Healthline, speech is usually controlled by the left side of the cerebrum. The cerebrum is broken down into four regions– known as the frontal, temporal, parietal, and occipital lobes.
Moreover, the left temporal and frontal lobes have long been associated with the formation and understanding of speech.
But, a research study conducted by MIT, UCLA, and Carnegie Mellon University discovered that the absence of a left temporal lobe is not guaranteed to impede speech.
A fifty-year-old woman, referred to as “EG” in the study, reached out to MIT researchers in 2016. She regarded her brain as “interesting” since she did not have a left temporal lobe.
The woman was not involved in a known accident nor born with a known condition. She never suffered from any speech or behavioral impediments.
In fact, she actually went on to obtain advanced college degrees and speaks a second language fluently.
This alone is very shocking since the left frontal lobe primarily dictates language processing.
It was not until 1987 when EG obtained a brain scan that she learned she did not have a left temporal lobe.
EG was referred to Evelina Fedorenko, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard University, who studied her brain further.
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