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Large-Scale Brain Networks Underlying Language Acquisition in Early Infancy

A critical issue in human development is that of whether the language-related areas in the left frontal and temporal regions work as a functional network in preverbal infants. Here, we used 94-channel near-infrared spectroscopy to reveal the functional networks in the brains of sleeping 3-month-old...

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Autores principales: Homae, Fumitaka, Watanabe, Hama, Nakano, Tamami, Taga, Gentaro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Research Foundation 2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3110337/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21687461
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00093
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author Homae, Fumitaka
Watanabe, Hama
Nakano, Tamami
Taga, Gentaro
author_facet Homae, Fumitaka
Watanabe, Hama
Nakano, Tamami
Taga, Gentaro
author_sort Homae, Fumitaka
collection PubMed
description A critical issue in human development is that of whether the language-related areas in the left frontal and temporal regions work as a functional network in preverbal infants. Here, we used 94-channel near-infrared spectroscopy to reveal the functional networks in the brains of sleeping 3-month-old infants with and without presenting speech sounds. During the first 3 min, we measured spontaneous brain activation (period 1). After period 1, we provided stimuli by playing Japanese sentences for 3 min (period 2). Finally, we measured brain activation for 3 min without providing the stimulus (period 3), as in period 1. We found that not only the bilateral temporal and temporoparietal regions but also the prefrontal and occipital regions showed oxygenated hemoglobin signal increases and deoxygenated hemoglobin signal decreases when speech sounds were presented to infants. By calculating time-lagged cross-correlations and coherences of oxy-Hb signals between channels, we tested the functional connectivity for the three periods. The oxy-Hb signals in neighboring channels, as well as their homologous channels in the contralateral hemisphere, showed high correlation coefficients in period 1. Similar correlations were observed in period 2; however, the number of channels showing high correlations was higher in the ipsilateral hemisphere, especially in the anterior–posterior direction. The functional connectivity in period 3 showed a close relationship between the frontal and temporal regions, which was less prominent in period 1, indicating that these regions form the functional networks and work as a hysteresis system that has memory of the previous inputs. We propose a hypothesis that the spatiotemporally large-scale brain networks, including the frontal and temporal regions, underlie speech processing in infants and they might play important roles in language acquisition during infancy.
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spelling pubmed-31103372011-06-16 Large-Scale Brain Networks Underlying Language Acquisition in Early Infancy Homae, Fumitaka Watanabe, Hama Nakano, Tamami Taga, Gentaro Front Psychol Psychology A critical issue in human development is that of whether the language-related areas in the left frontal and temporal regions work as a functional network in preverbal infants. Here, we used 94-channel near-infrared spectroscopy to reveal the functional networks in the brains of sleeping 3-month-old infants with and without presenting speech sounds. During the first 3 min, we measured spontaneous brain activation (period 1). After period 1, we provided stimuli by playing Japanese sentences for 3 min (period 2). Finally, we measured brain activation for 3 min without providing the stimulus (period 3), as in period 1. We found that not only the bilateral temporal and temporoparietal regions but also the prefrontal and occipital regions showed oxygenated hemoglobin signal increases and deoxygenated hemoglobin signal decreases when speech sounds were presented to infants. By calculating time-lagged cross-correlations and coherences of oxy-Hb signals between channels, we tested the functional connectivity for the three periods. The oxy-Hb signals in neighboring channels, as well as their homologous channels in the contralateral hemisphere, showed high correlation coefficients in period 1. Similar correlations were observed in period 2; however, the number of channels showing high correlations was higher in the ipsilateral hemisphere, especially in the anterior–posterior direction. The functional connectivity in period 3 showed a close relationship between the frontal and temporal regions, which was less prominent in period 1, indicating that these regions form the functional networks and work as a hysteresis system that has memory of the previous inputs. We propose a hypothesis that the spatiotemporally large-scale brain networks, including the frontal and temporal regions, underlie speech processing in infants and they might play important roles in language acquisition during infancy. Frontiers Research Foundation 2011-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3110337/ /pubmed/21687461 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00093 Text en Copyright © 2011 Homae, Watanabe, Nakano and Taga. http://www.frontiersin.org/licenseagreement This is an open-access article subject to a non-exclusive license between the authors and Frontiers Media SA, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and other Frontiers conditions are complied with.
spellingShingle Psychology
Homae, Fumitaka
Watanabe, Hama
Nakano, Tamami
Taga, Gentaro
Large-Scale Brain Networks Underlying Language Acquisition in Early Infancy
title Large-Scale Brain Networks Underlying Language Acquisition in Early Infancy
title_full Large-Scale Brain Networks Underlying Language Acquisition in Early Infancy
title_fullStr Large-Scale Brain Networks Underlying Language Acquisition in Early Infancy
title_full_unstemmed Large-Scale Brain Networks Underlying Language Acquisition in Early Infancy
title_short Large-Scale Brain Networks Underlying Language Acquisition in Early Infancy
title_sort large-scale brain networks underlying language acquisition in early infancy
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3110337/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21687461
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00093
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