Enge Alexander, Friederici Angela D, Skeide Michael A
Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103, Leipzig, Germany; Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 12489, Berlin, Germany.
Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
Neuroimage. 2020 Jul 15;215:116858. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116858. Epub 2020 Apr 15.
The neural representation of language comprehension has been examined in several meta-analyses of fMRI studies with human adults. To complement this work from a developmental perspective, we conducted a meta-analysis of fMRI studies of auditory language comprehension in human children. Our analysis included 27 independent experiments involving n = 625 children (49% girls) with a mean age of 8.9 years. Activation likelihood estimation and seed-based effect size mapping revealed activation peaks in the pars triangularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus and bilateral superior and middle temporal gyri. In contrast to this distribution of activation in children, previous work in adults found activation peaks in the pars opercularis of the left inferior frontal gyrus and more left-lateralized temporal activation peaks. Accordingly, brain responses during language comprehension may shift from bilateral temporal and left pars triangularis peaks in childhood to left temporal and pars opercularis peaks in adulthood. This shift could be related to the gradually increasing sensitivity of the developing brain to syntactic information.
语言理解的神经表征已经在针对成年人类的功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）研究的多项荟萃分析中得到了检验。为了从发育的角度补充这项工作，我们对人类儿童听觉语言理解的fMRI研究进行了荟萃分析。我们的分析包括27项独立实验，涉及n = 625名儿童（49%为女孩），平均年龄为8.9岁。激活可能性估计和基于种子点的效应大小映射显示，激活峰值出现在左侧额下回三角部以及双侧颞上回和颞中回。与儿童的这种激活分布不同，先前针对成年人的研究发现激活峰值出现在左侧额下回岛盖部以及更偏向左侧的颞叶激活峰值。因此，语言理解过程中的大脑反应可能会从儿童期双侧颞叶和左侧三角部的峰值，转变为成年期左侧颞叶和岛盖部的峰值。这种转变可能与发育中的大脑对句法信息的敏感性逐渐增加有关。
