The mis-wired language network in children with developmental language disorder: insights from DTI tractography

Abstract

This study aims to detect the neural substrate underlying the language impairment in children with developmental language disorder (DLD) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography. Deterministic DTI tractography was performed in a group of right-handed children with DLD (N = 17; mean age 10;07 ± 2;01 years) and a typically developing control group matched for age, gender and handedness (N = 22; mean age 11;00 ± 1;11 years) to bilaterally identify the superior longitudinal fascicle, arcuate fascicle, anterior lateral segment and posterior lateral segment (also called dorsal language network) and the middle and inferior longitudinal fascicle, extreme capsule fiber system and uncinate fascicle (also called ventral language network). Language skills were assessed using an extensive, standardized test battery. Differences in language performance, white matter organization and structural lateralization of the language network were statistically analyzed. Children with DLD showed a higher overall volume and higher ADC values for the left-hemispheric language related WM tracts. In addition, in children with DLD, the majority (88%; 7/8) of the studied language related WM tracts did not show a significant left or right lateralization pattern. These structural alterations might underlie the language impairment in children with DLD.

Hand preference and Mathematical Learning Difficulties: New data from Greece, the United Kingdom, and Germany and two meta-analyses of the literature

“…Comorbidity had also been shown with disorders such as the Fragile X syndrome and Turner syndrome (Mazzocco, 2001;Murphy & Mazzocco, 2008;Murphy, Mazzocco, Gerner, & Henry, 2006), aphasia (e.g., Semenza et al, 2006), focal neurodegenerative syndromes posterior cortical atrophy (Miller et al, 2018), acute vestibular neuritis (Moser, Vibert, Caversaccio & Mast, 2017a), peripheral vestibular deficits (Moser, Vibert, Caversaccio, & Mast, 2017b), developmental language disorder (Verly et al, 2018), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (Kuhn, Ise, Raddatz, Schewenk, & Dobel, 2016), dyslexia (Wilson et al, 2015) and with deficits in working memory (Attout & Majerus, 2015;Geary, Hoard, & Bailey, 2012a;Menon, 2016), reading (Geary et al, 2012b;Greiffenstein & Baker, 2002;Tobia, Fasola, Lupieri, & Marzocchi, 2016), visual-spatial skills (Szucs, Devine, Soltesz, Nobes, & Gabriel, 2013), and attention (Askenazi & Henik, 2010b;Fletcher, 2005). Of note, many of the neurodevelopmental conditions mentioned above have a higher incidence in males, similarly to MLD, for example the Fragile X syndrome (Turner, Webb, Wake & Robinson, 1996), dyslexia (Arnett et al, 2017;but also see Jiménez et al, 2011, who did not find a sex difference), and ADHD (Arnett, Pennington, Willcutt, DeFries, & Olson, 2015).…”

“…presented with aphasia (e.g., Semenza et al, 2006), posterior cortical atrophy (e.g., Miller et al, 2018), acute vestibular neuritis (e.g., Moser, Vibert, Caversaccio & Mast, 2017a), peripheral vestibular deficits (e.g., Moser et al, 2017b), developmental language disorder (e.g., Verly et al, 2018), or dyslexia (e.g., Koerte et al, 2016) were excluded. Τhe study of Shalev et al (1995) was included, although 13 out of the 25 dyscalculic children had a diagnosis of ADHD, but only the data from participants without the disorder were used.…”

Hand preference and Mathematical Learning Difficulties: New data from Greece, the United Kingdom, and Germany and two meta-analyses of the literature

“…Absence of comorbidity: Studies including participants with MLD who also presented with aphasia (e.g., Semenza et al, 2006), posterior cortical atrophy (e.g., Miller et al, 2018), acute vestibular neuritis (e.g., Moser, Vibert, Caversaccio & Mast, 2017a), peripheral vestibular deficits (e.g., Moser et al, 2017b), developmental language disorder (e.g., Verly et al, 2018), or dyslexia (e.g., Koerte et al, 2016) were excluded. Τhe study of Shalev et al (1995) was included, although 13 out of the 25 dyscalculic children had a diagnosis of ADHD, but only the data from participants without the disorder were used.…”

Extreme Capsule is a Bottleneck for Ventral Pathway

“…The dorsal pathway contains superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) and its branches, while the ventral pathways include the extreme capsule fiber system (ECFS), the UF, the inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and the middle longitudinal fasciculus (MdLF). [28] Also in the comprehension processing of sentences, children, unlike adults, use areas 45 that are connected to the superior temporal gyrus and superior temporal sulcus by the EmC. This use may be due to immaturity of the dorsal pathway of the language.…”

“…In addition to the dorsal pathways, the ventricular pathways also play a role in the compensatory mechanisms of the language that are formed by the right hemisphere. [28]…”