Cargando…

Cortical and white matter correlates of language‐learning aptitudes

People learn new languages with varying degrees of success but what are the neuroanatomical correlates of the difference in language‐learning aptitude? In this study, we set out to investigate how differences in cortical morphology and white matter microstructure correlate with aptitudes for vocabul...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Novén, Mikael, Olsson, Hampus, Helms, Gunther, Horne, Merle, Nilsson, Markus, Roll, Mikael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8449104/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34288240
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25598
_version_ 1784569363523698688
author Novén, Mikael
Olsson, Hampus
Helms, Gunther
Horne, Merle
Nilsson, Markus
Roll, Mikael
author_facet Novén, Mikael
Olsson, Hampus
Helms, Gunther
Horne, Merle
Nilsson, Markus
Roll, Mikael
author_sort Novén, Mikael
collection PubMed
description People learn new languages with varying degrees of success but what are the neuroanatomical correlates of the difference in language‐learning aptitude? In this study, we set out to investigate how differences in cortical morphology and white matter microstructure correlate with aptitudes for vocabulary learning, phonetic memory, and grammatical inferencing as measured by the first‐language neutral LLAMA test battery. We used ultra‐high field (7T) magnetic resonance imaging to estimate the cortical thickness and surface area from sub‐millimeter resolved image volumes. Further, diffusion kurtosis imaging was used to map diffusion properties related to the tissue microstructure from known language‐related white matter tracts. We found a correlation between cortical surface area in the left posterior‐inferior precuneus and vocabulary learning aptitude, possibly indicating a greater predisposition for storing word‐figure associations. Moreover, we report negative correlations between scores for phonetic memory and axial kurtosis in left arcuate fasciculus as well as mean kurtosis, axial kurtosis, and radial kurtosis of the left superior longitudinal fasciculus III, which are tracts connecting cortical areas important for phonological working memory.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8449104
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-84491042021-09-24 Cortical and white matter correlates of language‐learning aptitudes Novén, Mikael Olsson, Hampus Helms, Gunther Horne, Merle Nilsson, Markus Roll, Mikael Hum Brain Mapp Research Articles People learn new languages with varying degrees of success but what are the neuroanatomical correlates of the difference in language‐learning aptitude? In this study, we set out to investigate how differences in cortical morphology and white matter microstructure correlate with aptitudes for vocabulary learning, phonetic memory, and grammatical inferencing as measured by the first‐language neutral LLAMA test battery. We used ultra‐high field (7T) magnetic resonance imaging to estimate the cortical thickness and surface area from sub‐millimeter resolved image volumes. Further, diffusion kurtosis imaging was used to map diffusion properties related to the tissue microstructure from known language‐related white matter tracts. We found a correlation between cortical surface area in the left posterior‐inferior precuneus and vocabulary learning aptitude, possibly indicating a greater predisposition for storing word‐figure associations. Moreover, we report negative correlations between scores for phonetic memory and axial kurtosis in left arcuate fasciculus as well as mean kurtosis, axial kurtosis, and radial kurtosis of the left superior longitudinal fasciculus III, which are tracts connecting cortical areas important for phonological working memory. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2021-07-20 /pmc/articles/PMC8449104/ /pubmed/34288240 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25598 Text en © 2021 The Authors. Human Brain Mapping published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the terms of the http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Novén, Mikael
Olsson, Hampus
Helms, Gunther
Horne, Merle
Nilsson, Markus
Roll, Mikael
Cortical and white matter correlates of language‐learning aptitudes
title Cortical and white matter correlates of language‐learning aptitudes
title_full Cortical and white matter correlates of language‐learning aptitudes
title_fullStr Cortical and white matter correlates of language‐learning aptitudes
title_full_unstemmed Cortical and white matter correlates of language‐learning aptitudes
title_short Cortical and white matter correlates of language‐learning aptitudes
title_sort cortical and white matter correlates of language‐learning aptitudes
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8449104/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34288240
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25598
work_keys_str_mv AT novenmikael corticalandwhitemattercorrelatesoflanguagelearningaptitudes
AT olssonhampus corticalandwhitemattercorrelatesoflanguagelearningaptitudes
AT helmsgunther corticalandwhitemattercorrelatesoflanguagelearningaptitudes
AT hornemerle corticalandwhitemattercorrelatesoflanguagelearningaptitudes
AT nilssonmarkus corticalandwhitemattercorrelatesoflanguagelearningaptitudes
AT rollmikael corticalandwhitemattercorrelatesoflanguagelearningaptitudes