In light of the refreshingly honest obituaries of James Watson I thought I'd share something I learned the other day.

If you've studied any #neuroscience or #psychology (and maybe also #linguistics) then there's a pretty good chance that you've heard of Broca's area - a region in human brains that is closely associated with language production and comprehension.

It got its name from Paul Broca, a French physician who discovered a pattern of lesions in that region of the brain among patients suffering from aphasia. He name is one of 72 that are engraved on the Eiffel tower to commemorate notable scientists.

I learned his name in school, but wasn't taught about his horrendous views on race. I only stumbled across these the other night while browsing through wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Broca

Now that I know, I think I'll either just refer to Broca's area as "the brain's language center" or else make sure to be clear about what a terrible person he was when mentioning his name.