State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Laboratoire de Sciences Cognitives et Psycholinguistique (ENS, CNRS, EHESS), Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL Research University, Paris, France.
Dev Sci. 2018 Sep;21(5):e12647. doi: 10.1111/desc.12647. Epub 2018 Feb 6.
The acquisition of language involves the functional specialization of several cortical regions. Connectivity between these brain regions may also change with the development of language. Various studies have demonstrated that the arcuate fasciculus was essential for language function. Vocabulary learning is one of the most important skills in language acquisition. In the present longitudinal study, we explored the influence of vocabulary development on the anatomical properties of the arcuate fasciculus. Seventy-nine Chinese children participated in this study. Between age 4 and age 10, they were administered the same vocabulary task repeatedly. Following a previous study, children's vocabulary developmental trajectories were clustered into three subgroups (consistently good, catch-up, consistently poor). At age 14, diffusion tensor imaging data were collected. Using ROI-based tractography, the anterior, posterior and direct segments of the bilateral arcuate fasciculus were delineated in each child's native space. Group comparisons showed a significantly reduced fractional anisotropy in the left arcuate fasciculus of children in the consistently poor group, in particular in the posterior and direct segments of the arcuate fasciculus. No group differences were observed in the right hemisphere, nor in the left anterior segment. Further regression analyses showed that the rate of vocabulary development, rather than the initial vocabulary size, was a specific predictor of the left arcuate fasciculus connectivity.
语言的习得涉及到几个皮质区域的功能专门化。这些大脑区域之间的连通性也可能随着语言的发展而改变。各种研究表明，弓状束对于语言功能至关重要。词汇学习是语言习得中最重要的技能之一。在本纵向研究中，我们探讨了词汇发展对弓状束解剖性质的影响。79 名中国儿童参与了这项研究。在 4 岁至 10 岁之间，他们反复接受相同的词汇任务。根据先前的一项研究，将儿童的词汇发展轨迹分为三组（一直表现好、后来赶上来、一直表现差）。在 14 岁时，采集了扩散张量成像数据。在每个孩子的原生空间中，使用基于 ROI 的束追踪技术，描绘了双侧弓状束的前、后和直接段。组间比较显示，一直表现差的儿童的左侧弓状束的各向异性分数明显降低，尤其是在后段和直接段。右侧半球和左侧前段没有组间差异。进一步的回归分析表明，词汇发展速度而不是初始词汇量是左侧弓状束连通性的一个特定预测指标。
