Development of language-related neural networks using multimodal imaging

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One of the enduring questions of developmental neuroscience is how the functional organization of the brain changes with maturation and experience. The present proposal focuses on a key behavioral skill acquired by nearly all children in their first few postnatal years – the ability to understand and speak their native language. The neural basis of language acquisition will be studied with a non-invasive neuroimaging technique that will allow researchers to understand changes in the brain during language learning. Such data in children has been very difficult to collect with other brain imaging techniques, because those techniques create loud noises that interfere with spoken language stimuli and require severe constraints on body and head movement - features that are especially challenging for children. In conjunction with others, the investigators in this project have developed a “child-friendly” neuroimaging approach that will make it possible to study brain signals in widespread neural networks in the brain during language acquisition in infants and young children. This will provide a new window into neural dynamics, and brain plasticity and reorganization during the early years of natural language development as children learn to speak, read and write. This research will have profound implications for social, cognitive and educational outcomes of early development. The researchers will use a relatively new approach to brain imaging called fNIRS (functional near-infrared spectroscopy) and validate the technique with a more established brain imaging technique - fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). This combination of fMRI and fNIRS is crucial to achieve the best possible interpretation of brain signals across a wide age range (from 6 months to 7 years) as language-related networks develop. After enhanced characterization and validation of fNIRS signals, the researchers will then obtain repeated longitudinal measures of individual infants during a period of rapid language development using fNIRS alone. Children will be presented with engaging, naturalistic movies with linguistic content that is systematically varied to study how the language areas and networks of the brain are activated across development. Measurements of language development using parental report and in-home audio recordings will be conducted in parallel with the brain imaging measures. The overall goal is to provide a detailed characterization of the language-related brain networks that support language comprehension as infants/toddlers/children acquire their native language. In addition, this project will generate a useful public dataset and a critical test of the utility/reliability of fNIRS as a more child-friendly neuroimaging technique, thereby making possible the use of fNIRS in the future as a readily accessible and cost-effective tool for future pediatric studies of brain development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.