AREAS OF THE HUMAN CORTEX INVOLVED IN LANGUAGE A Synopsis of Luria's Traumatic Aphasia Author: Douglas M. Bowden Graphics/Web Design: Erik McArthur Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and National Primate Research Center University of Washington Seattle, Washington, USA A. R. Luria, a psychologist and physician, studied "higher cortical functions" and particularly aphasia for more than 30 years. During much of that time he served as chief of the diagnostic and research section of the Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery in Moscow. This research institute and hospital received intracranial surgical cases from throughout the USSR. The translation of Luria's book Traumatic Aphasia was the first complete presentation in English of his findings regarding the organization of cerebral functions and of the testing procedures which he developed to diagnose brain lesions. It summarized his work with several hundred patients who suffered localized brain injuries during World War II.