What a Bird Brain

Sketch of general brain areas for language

This is a sketch of the general brain areas for language in humans. Broca's is involved in making speech sound, Wernicke's is involved in recognizing speech.

In stuttering humans and birds, there is less cortical activity in the sound processing region of the brain.

Created with CAST's UDL Book Builder
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Having less cortical activity is not always bad. In fact, often when someone becomes skilled at something, they use less brain area than someone who is just learning something. But when there are noticable brain differences, as with stuttering, that may provide helpful clues.

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Can you think of a skill or talent you have that might give your brain a unique shape from someone else?

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Select this then click anywhere in the book to start reading text Speak the current selection Stops speech playback Double-click a word in the book and click this icon to translate the word into Spanish