As with Broca's area, Wernicke's area was discovered by autopsies of patients who had speech difficulties. Carl Wernicke, a German neurologist, had a patient who could speak quite well, but was unable to understand the speech of others. After the patient's death, Wernicke found damage to an area at the upper portion of the temporal lobe, just behind the auditory cortex. He thought, correctly, that this area was responsible for speech comprehension. This kind of aphasia is known as Wernicke's aphasia, or receptive aphasia.