Both frontal and temporal cortex exhibit phonological and semantic specialization during spoken language processing in 7‐ to 8‐year‐old children

Wang, Jin; Yamasaki, Brianna L.; Weiss, Yael; Booth, James R.

doi:10.1002/hbm.25450

Cited by 18 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Left STG plays an essential role in word segmentation or analyzing words' phonological and morphological constituents (Arredondo et al, 2015;Friederici & Gierhan, 2013;Friederici et al, 2003;Leminen et al, 2019;Leonard & Chang, 2014;Liebenthal et al, 2005;Wang et al, 2021). For instance, Arredondo et al (2015) showed that children with stronger morphological awareness skills exhibited stronger left STG activation during a morphology task.…”

Section: Home Language Proficiency Effects In Bilingual's Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain bases of English morphological processing: A comparison between Chinese‐English, Spanish‐English bilingual, and English monolingual children

Sun

Marks

Zhang

et al. 2022

Developmental Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Conflict of interest disclosure:We have no known conflict of interest to disclose. BILINGUAL BRAIN BASIS OF MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSING 2Research Highlights -This study investigates the effects of early bilingualism on children's neural architecture for word processing by comparing monolinguals and bilinguals with a lexical morphology task -Language-specific transfer effects revealed principled functional activation differences between Chinese-English bilinguals, Spanish-English bilinguals, and English monolinguals -Common to both bilingual groups, home language proficiency was positively associated with left STG activation when processing English words that have morphological structures most distinct from their home language -Successful dual first-language acquisition is likely made possible by automating linguistically shared processes and heightened sensitivity to dissimilar processes BILINGUAL BRAIN BASIS OF MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSING

show abstract

Section: Home Language Proficiency Effects In Bilingual's Englishmentioning

confidence: 99%

Brain bases of English morphological processing: A comparison between Chinese‐English, Spanish‐English bilingual, and English monolingual children

Sun

Marks

Zhang

et al. 2022

Developmental Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The copyright holder for this preprint this version posted August 12, 2022. ; https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.08.11.503597 doi: bioRxiv preprint 4 4 regions emerge in early childhood (ages 5-6) (Weiss et al, 2018), the frontal regions are slower to develop their specificity to linguistic content, emerging only after 7-8 years of age (Wang et al, 2021). Others have seen frontal language network activation in children as young as 4 years old (Olulade et al,.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Functional dissociation of the language network and other cognition in early childhood

Hiersche

Schettini

Jin

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Is language distinct from other cognition? Does the neural machinery for language emerge from general-purpose neural mechanisms early in development, becoming tuned for language only after years of experience and maturation? In adults, language is supported by a frontotemporal network that is functionally and connectionally dissociated from adjacent domain-general cortex supporting other, more general cognitive functions. We scanned young children (2-9 years of age) on an auditory language localizer, spatial working memory localizer (engaging the domain-general multiple demand (MD) network), and a resting state scan. Subject-specific functional regions of interest (fROIs) defined with the language task showed consistent selectivity to auditory sentences in key left hemisphere regions, and were not engaged for spatial working memory, showing similar domain-specificity as reported in adults; and despite known prolonged development of frontal cortices, the left inferior frontal cortex (“Broca’s area”) showed some of the most robust specificity for linguistic content. Thus, despite immature language skills, young children already have left-lateralized brain regions dedicated to linguistic content. Children also showed higher within-network (language-language) connectivity than between-network connectivity (language-to-MD fROIs defined with the working memory task), in both hemispheres, but with higher within-network connectivity on the left. Language-selectivity increased with age (replicated in a subset of children scanned longitudinally) while specificity of language connectivity did not change with age (again replicated longitudinally), suggesting that connectivity is more static than, and may perhaps earmark, functional specificity. By age 2, the language network is specialized for linguistic processing (domain-specific) function, is distinct from adjacent cortex, and is not engaged in other higher-order cognitive processing.

show abstract

“…Prior work suggests a functional separation of the dorsal versus ventral left IFG for phonological and semantic processing (e.g., Coltheart et al, 2005;Hodgson et al 20221;Jobard et al, 2003;Mathur et al, 2020;Vigneau et al, 2011;Wang, Yamasaki, Weiss, & Booth, 2021). Phonological processing of speech sounds involves perceptual processing in the STG and articulatory processing in the dorsal IFG (Hickok & Poeppel, 2004;.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Phonological specialization in the left STG is evident in children by age five (e.g., Mathur et al, 2020;Weiss, Cweigenberg, & Booth, 2018;Yamasaki et al, 2021), whereas specialization in the dorsal IFG is thought to develop later around age seven (e.g., Wang, Yamasaki, Weiss, & Booth, 2021;Yamasaki et al, 2021). Notably, the engagement of this dorsal fronto-temporal pathway during phonological processing is predictive of children's word reading skills throughout reading development (Wang et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Semantic specialization in the left MTG is also evident in children by age five (e.g., Mathur et al, 2020;Wang, Yamasaki, Weiss, & Booth, 2021), whereas specialization in the ventral IFG seems to develop later around age seven (e.g., . Across studies with skilled adult and younger readers, engagement of the ventral fronto-temporal pathway during semantic processing is related to discourselevel reading skills (e.g., Jasinska et al, 2020;Lee at al., 2016;Yu et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Neural pathways of phonological and semantic processing and its relations to children’s reading skills

Wagley¹,

Booth²

2022

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Behavioral research shows that children’s phonological ability is strongly associated with better word reading skills, whereas semantic knowledge is strongly related to better reading comprehension. However, most neuroscience research has investigated how brain activation during phonological and semantic processing is related to word reading skill. This study examines if connectivity during phonological processing of the dorsal inferior frontal gyrus (dIFG) to posterior superior temporal gyrus (pSTG) pathway is related to word reading skill, whereas connectivity during semantic processing of the ventral inferior frontal gyrus (vIFG) to posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG) pathway is related to reading comprehension skill. We used behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from a publicly accessible dataset on OpenNeuro.org. The research hypotheses and analytical plan were pre-registered on the Open Science Framework. Forty-six children ages 8-15 years old were included in the final analyses. Participants completed an in-scanner reading task tapping into phonology (i.e., word rhyming) and semantics (i.e., word meaning) as well as standardized measures of word reading and reading comprehension skill. In a series of registered and exploratory analyses, we correlated connectivity coefficients from generalized psychophysiological interactions (gPPI) with behavioral measures and used z-scores to test the equality of two correlation coefficients. Results from the preregistered and exploratory analyses indicated weak evidence that functional connectivity of dIFG to pSTG during phonological processing is positively correlated with better word reading skill, but no evidence that connectivity in the vIFG-pMTG pathway during semantic processing is related to better reading comprehension skill. Moreover, there was no evidence to support the differentiation between the dorsal pathway’s relation to word reading and the ventral pathway’s relation to reading comprehension skills. Our finding of the importance of phonological processing to word reading is in line with prior behavioral and neurodevelopmental models.

show abstract

Both frontal and temporal cortex exhibit phonological and semantic specialization during spoken language processing in 7‐ to 8‐year‐old children

Abstract: A previous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study by Weiss et al.

Cited by 18 publications

References 46 publications

Brain bases of English morphological processing: A comparison between Chinese‐English, Spanish‐English bilingual, and English monolingual children

Brain bases of English morphological processing: A comparison between Chinese‐English, Spanish‐English bilingual, and English monolingual children

Functional dissociation of the language network and other cognition in early childhood

Neural pathways of phonological and semantic processing and its relations to children’s reading skills

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About