Faculty of Psychology, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, 20132 Milan, Italy.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Sep 20;108(38):16056-61. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1102991108. Epub 2011 Sep 6.
The ability to learn language is a human trait. In adults and children, brain imaging studies have shown that auditory language activates a bilateral frontotemporal network with a left hemispheric dominance. It is an open question whether these activations represent the complete neural basis for language present at birth. Here we demonstrate that in 2-d-old infants, the language-related neural substrate is fully active in both hemispheres with a preponderance in the right auditory cortex. Functional and structural connectivities within this neural network, however, are immature, with strong connectivities only between the two hemispheres, contrasting with the adult pattern of prevalent intrahemispheric connectivities. Thus, although the brain responds to spoken language already at birth, thereby providing a strong biological basis to acquire language, progressive maturation of intrahemispheric functional connectivity is yet to be established with language exposure as the brain develops.
学习语言的能力是人类的特质。在成人和儿童中，脑成像研究表明，听觉语言激活了一个具有左半球优势的双侧额颞网络。目前尚不清楚这些激活是否代表了出生时存在的完整语言神经基础。在这里，我们证明在 2 天大的婴儿中，语言相关的神经基质在两个半球中都是完全活跃的，右听觉皮层占优势。然而，这个神经网络内的功能和结构连接是不成熟的，只有两个半球之间有很强的连接，与成人的以半球内连接为主的模式形成对比。因此，尽管大脑在出生时就已经对口语做出反应，从而为学习语言提供了强大的生物学基础，但随着大脑的发育，还需要建立语言暴露与半球内功能连接之间的进一步成熟关系。
