Development of the brain's language network: structure and function
1 : Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
(MPI CBS)
Language processing in the human brain is mainly accomplished by a network of perisylvian frontal and temporal brain regions. Differences in the language networks of adults and children are observed in low frequency fluctuations of the BOLD signal in response to language processing. Correlations in these fluctuations across the brain yield strong ipsilateral findings between frontal and temporal language areas in adults, but not in children. Children instead show stronger correlations to contralateral homolog regions. A complementary aspect of this functional network is its structural connectivity as in the course of language acquisition during childhood, linguistic abilities are established and improved while the brain matures simultaneously. Combining functional and structural data shows that children not only employ the cortical areas of the language network differently compared to adults, moreover, they also show that their use of these functional areas is related to the maturational status of the underlying white matter. Taken together, the available data suggest that the full mastery of language depends on a neural network which guarantees the functional interplay between language regions.
| Subject : | : | Symposium |
| Topics | : | SY: Advances in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience |
| PDF version | : |  PDF version |
