Hand preference and sex shape the architecture of language networks.
In right-handed subjects, language processing relies predominantly on left hemisphere networks, more so in men than in women, and in right- versus left-handers. Using DT-MRI tractography, we have shown that right-handed men are massively interconnected between the left-hemisphere language areas, whereas the homologous in the right hemisphere are sparse; interhemispheric connections between the language areas and their contralateral homologues are relatively strong. Women and left-handed men have equally strong intrahemispheric connections in both hemispheres, but women have a higher density of interhemispheric connections.
Signal Processing Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. patric.hagmann@epfl.ch
Patric
P
Hagmann
Leila
L
Cammoun
Roberto
R
Martuzzi
Philippe
P
Maeder
Stephanie
S
Clarke
Jean-Philippe
JP
Thiran
Reto
R
Meuli
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology; D012737:Sex Factors; D013067:Speech Perception / Q000502:physiology*