Should Broca's area include Brodmann area 47?

BACKGROUND: Understanding brain organization of speech production has been a principal goal of neuroscience. Historically, brain speech production has been associated with so-called Broca’s area (Brodmann area –BA- 44 and 45), however, modern neuroimaging developments suggest speech production is associated with networks rather than with areas. The purpose of this paper was to analyze the connectivity of BA47 ( pars orbitalis) in relation to language .

METHOD: A meta-analysis was conducted to assess the language network in which BA47 is involved. The Brainmap database was used. Twenty papers corresponding to 29 experimental conditions with a total of 373 subjects were included.

RESULTS: Our results suggest that BA47 participates in a “frontal language production system” (or extended Broca’s system). The BA47  connectivity found is also concordant with a minor role in language semantics.

CONCLUSIONS: BA47 plays a central role in the language production system.