Broca’s Area Is Not a Natural Kind

Abstract

© 2020 Elsevier Ltd Theories of human cognition prominently feature 'Broca's area', which causally contributes to a myriad of mental functions. However, Broca's area is not a monolithic, multipurpose unit – it is structurally and functionally heterogeneous. Some functions engaging (subsets of) this area share neurocognitive resources, whereas others rely on separable circuits. A decade of converging evidence has now illuminated a fundamental distinction between two subregions of Broca's area that likely play computationally distinct roles in cognition: one belongs to the domain-specific 'language network', the other to the domain-general 'multiple-demand (MD) network'. Claims about Broca's area should be (re)cast in terms of these (and other, as yet undetermined) functional components, to establish a cumulative research enterprise where empirical findings can be replicated and theoretical proposals can be meaningfully compared and falsified.