Question:
Early anatomically based models of language consisted of an arcuate tractconnecting Broca's speech and Wernicke's comprehension centers; a lesion ofthe tract resulted in conduction aphasia. However, the heterogeneousclinical presentations of conduction aphasia suggest a greater complexity ofperisylvian anatomical connections than allowed for in the classicalanatomical model.

That's something I catched on a newspaper. What's your thoughts???

Answer: This article re-explores perisylvian language connectivityusing in vivo diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging tractography.Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging data from 11 right-handedhealthy male subjects were averaged, and the arcuate fasciculus of the lefthemisphere reconstructed from this data using an interactive dissectiontechnique. Beyond the classical arcuate pathway connecting Broca's andWernicke's areas directly, we show a previously undescribed, indirectpathway passing through inferior parietal cortex. The indirect pathway runsparallel and lateral to the classical arcuate fasciculus and is composed ofan anterior segment connecting Broca's territory with the inferior parietallobe and a posterior segment connecting the inferior parietal lobe toWernicke's territory. This model of two parallel pathways helps explain thediverse clinical presentations of conduction aphasia. The anatomicalfindings are also relevant to the evolution of language, provide a frameworkfor Lichtheim's symptom-based neurological model of aphasia, and constrain,anatomically, contemporary connectionist accounts of language.