How reading acquisition changes children's spoken language network.
To examine the influence of age and reading proficiency on the development of the spoken language network, we tested 6- and 9-years-old children listening to native and foreign sentences in a slow event-related fMRI paradigm. We observed a stable organization of the peri-sylvian areas during this time period with a left dominance in the superior temporal sulcus and inferior frontal region. A year of reading instruction was nevertheless sufficient to increase activation in regions involved in phonological representations (posterior superior temporal region) and sentence integration (temporal pole and pars orbitalis). A top-down activation of the left inferior temporal cortex surrounding the visual word form area, was also observed but only in 9year-olds (3years of reading practice) listening to their native language. These results emphasize how a successful cultural practice, reading, slots in the biological constraints of the innate spoken language network.
INSERM, U992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; CEA, DSV/I2BM, NeuroSpin Center, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France; University Paris-Sud, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, F-91191 Gif/Yvette, France.
Karla
K
Monzalvo
Ghislaine
G
Dehaene-Lambertz
D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007804:Language Development; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*
Brain development; Child; Language comprehension; Reading; STS; Speech; VWFA; fMRI; superior temporal sulcus; visual word form area