Carl Wernicke

Carl Wernicke (1848 to 1905), also spelled Karl, was a German physician, anatomist, psychiatrist and neuropathologist. He is known for influential research into the pathological effects of specific forms of encephalopathy and for the study of receptive aphasia, which are commonly associated with his name as Wernicke encephalopathy and Wernicke's aphasia. His research, together with that of Paul Broca, led to groundbreaking realizations about the localization of brain function, specifically in speech. For this reason the part of the brain involved in understanding language is named Wernicke's area, or the Wernicke speech area, after him. The atlas records him as a clinician and brain scientist whose names for disorders and a brain region are still used in neurology and psychiatry.