Medical College of Wisconsin
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fMRI connectivity of expressive language in young children and adolescents. Hum Brain Mapp 2018 Sep;39(9):3586-3596

Date

05/03/2018

Pubmed ID

29717539

Pubmed Central ID

PMC6866395

DOI

10.1002/hbm.24196

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-85046253102 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   19 Citations

Abstract

Studies of language representation in development have shown a bilateral distributed pattern of activation that becomes increasingly left-lateralized and focal from young childhood to adulthood. However, the level by which canonical and extra-canonical regions, including subcortical and cerebellar regions, contribute to language during development has not been well-characterized. In this study, we employed fMRI connectivity analyses (fcMRI) to characterize the distributed network supporting expressive language in a group of young children (age 4-6) and adolescents (age 16-18). We conducted an fcMRI analysis using seed-to-voxel and seed-to-ROI (region of interest) strategies to investigate interactions of left pars triangularis with other brain areas. The analyses showed significant interhemispheric connectivity in young children, with a minimal connectivity of the left pars triangularis to subcortical and cerebellar regions. In contrast, adolescents showed significant connectivity between the left IFG seed and left perisylvian cortex, left caudate and putamen, and regions of the right cerebellum. Importantly, fcMRI analyses indicated significant differences between groups at 3 anatomical clusters, including left IFG, left supramarginal gyrus, and right cerebellar crura, suggesting a role in the functional development of language.

Author List

Youssofzadeh V, Vannest J, Kadis DS

Author

Vahab Youssofzadeh PhD Assistant Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of Wisconsin




MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adolescent
Cerebellum
Cerebral Cortex
Child
Child Language
Child, Preschool
Connectome
Female
Humans
Language
Language Development
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Young Adult