For more than a century, lesions to the left frontal operculum have been implicated in a constellation of linguistic deficits affecting the production of words and sentences and the comprehension of certain syntactic structures. However, the preponderance of the evidence fails to support the link between this structure, Broca's area, and this syndrome, Broca's aphasia. Rather, numerous neuroimaging and neuropsychological studies have converged on the hypothesis that Broca's area is involved in selecting among incompatible, competing representations.
Here, I explore the possible link between this putative cognitive control mechanism and aspects of language processing that have been linked to Broca's area (phonology, semantics, and syntax). The ability to explain certain linguistic deficits as a failure of a more general control mechanism may have far-reaching implications for the study of language.
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