THE RIVALRY BETWEEN LOCALIZATIONISTS AND HOLISTS THROUGHOUT THE HISTORY OF APHASIOLOGY

Abstract

One could argue that aphasiology shares a common starting point with the investigation of cognitive functions in the cerebral cortex. The roots of the rivalry between holism and localizationism can be found at the dawn of the phrenological theory. This rivalry, although reshaped and refined in many ways throughout the last centuries, continues up to this day. The present review aims to present the the main ideas stated by the two opposing views during the last 200 years. The fundamental question of the biological substrate of language –as revealed by the study of its pathology– still stands without a definite answer.