Effects of Early Language Deprivation on Brain Connectivity: Language Pathways in Deaf Native and Late First-Language Learners of American Sign Language
Effects of Early Language Deprivation on Brain Connectivity: Language Pathways in Deaf Native and Late First-Language Learners of American Sign Language
复制标题
DOI：
10.3389/fnhum.2019.00320
复制
发表时间：
2019-09-19
影响因子：
2.9
通讯作者：
Mayberry, Rachel, I
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cheng, Qi;Roth, Austin;Mayberry, Rachel, I
先前的研究已经确定腹侧和背侧白质束对语言处理至关重要；他们的成熟与语言处理能力的增强有关。尚不清楚这些语言相关通路的生长或维持是否受到早期生活中语言经验的影响。为了研究早期语言剥夺和语言的感觉-运动模式对白质束的影响，我们研究了有或没有早期语言接触的先天性聋人的语言相关通路的白质连通性。我们从两组从出生开始就有语言体验的个体中获得了弥散张量成像（DTI）数据，一组是12名美国手语聋人，另一组是12名美国手语（ASL）的听力健全的L2手语（母语为英语的人），另一组是3名在童年时期几乎没有语言体验的个体。结果表明，早期语言经验的感觉-运动模式不影响关键语言区域之间的白质微观结构。两组有早期语言经验的人，聋人和听力正常的人，在两个与语言相关的脑束中都表现出向左偏侧。然而，所有三个早期语言剥夺的病例都表现出白质微观结构的改变，特别是在左背弓状束（AF）通路。
Previous research has identified ventral and dorsal white matter tracts as being crucial for language processing; their maturation correlates with increased language processing capacity. Unknown is whether the growth or maintenance of these language-relevant pathways is shaped by language experience in early life. To investigate the effects of early language deprivation and the sensory-motor modality of language on white matter tracts, we examined the white matter connectivity of language-relevant pathways in congenitally deaf people with or without early access to language. We acquired diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data from two groups of individuals who experienced language from birth, twelve deaf native signers of American Sign Language, and twelve hearing L2 signers of ASL (native English speakers), and from three, well-studied individual cases who experienced minimal language during childhood. The results indicate that the sensory-motor modality of early language experience does not affect the white matter microstructure between crucial language regions. Both groups with early language experience, deaf and hearing, show leftward laterality in the two language-related tracts. However, all three cases with early language deprivation showed altered white matter microstructure, especially in the left dorsal arcuate fasciculus (AF) pathway.