Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Weill Institute for Neurosciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, 94143, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105, USA.
Neuroimage. 2019 Nov 1;201:116021. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116021. Epub 2019 Jul 13.
Learning to read transforms the brain, building on children's existing capacities for language and visuospatial processing. In particular, the development of print-speech convergence, or the spatial overlap of neural regions necessary for both auditory and visual language processing, is critical for literacy acquisition. Print-speech convergence is a universal signature of proficient reading, yet the antecedents of this convergence remain unknown. Here we examine the relationship between spoken language proficiency and the emergence of the print-speech network in beginning readers (ages 5-6). Results demonstrate that children's language proficiency, but not their early literacy skill, explains variance in their print-speech neural convergence in kindergarten. Furthermore, print-speech convergence in kindergarten predicts reading abilities one year later. These findings suggest that children's language ability is a core mechanism guiding the neural plasticity for learning to read, and extend theoretical perspectives on language and literacy acquisition across the lifespan.
学习阅读会改变大脑，利用儿童现有的语言和空间处理能力。特别是，印刷与语音的融合发展，或者说对于听觉和视觉语言处理都必不可少的神经区域的空间重叠，对于读写能力的获得至关重要。印刷与语音的融合是熟练阅读的普遍特征，但这种融合的前提尚不清楚。在这里，我们研究了口语熟练程度与初学者（5-6 岁）中印刷与语音网络出现之间的关系。结果表明，儿童的语言熟练程度，但不是他们的早期读写技能，解释了他们在幼儿园时印刷与语音神经融合的差异。此外，幼儿园时期的印刷与语音融合可以预测一年后的阅读能力。这些发现表明，儿童的语言能力是指导学习阅读的神经可塑性的核心机制，并扩展了语言和读写能力在整个生命周期内的理论观点。
