A reappraisal of the controversy of Dax and Broca

Journal of the History of the Neurosciences
R Cubelli, C G Montagna

Abstract

Paul Broca is unanimously recognized as the founder of neuropsychology. Helis development of the scientific method to map mental functions onto brain topographpy has been enormously influential. Nevertheless, Dax's paper on the left hemisphere dominance for speech was written and published before Broca explicitely proposed the same theory. Probably, Broca was aware of the paper prior to 1865, but he never acknowledged Dax's original theoretical contribution. On the contrary, he always claimed to be the first to espouse the theory of left hemisphere dominance for language and never quoted Marc Dax (Broca, 1877 p 536), 'I do not like dealing with the questions of priority concerning myself. That is the reason why I did not mention the name of Dax in my paper'. In our opinion, the weight of evidence reported here suggests that the theory of the left hemisphere dominance for speech must be attributed equally to Dax and Broca, and henceforth should be called 'the theory of Dax-Broca'.

References

Jan 1, 1990·Archives of Neurology·V W Henderson
Jan 1, 1984·Neuropsychologia·A Benton
May 1, 1953·Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry·G JEFFERSON
Sep 1, 1964·Neurology·R J JOYNT, A L BENTON

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Citations

Dec 1, 1996·Journal of the History of the Neurosciences·D Roe, S Finger
Dec 10, 2008·Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences·Luca Tommasi
Dec 24, 2011·TheScientificWorldJournal·Marcelo R RoxoJosemir W Sander
Jun 7, 2011·Revue neurologique·L Manning, C Thomas-Antérion
Nov 30, 2010·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Roberto Cubelli, Pierluigi De Bastiani
Jan 11, 2014·Genesis : the Journal of Genetics and Development·Lesley J Rogers
Aug 12, 2015·Brain and Cognition·Stefano ZagoRoberto Cubelli
Oct 8, 2013·Cortex; a Journal Devoted to the Study of the Nervous System and Behavior·Sergio Della SalaRoberto Cubelli
Dec 8, 2017·Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience·Juan F Cardona
Jul 10, 2019·Dementia & Neuropsychologia·Eliasz Engelhardt

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