Neural bases of phonological working memory in developmental language disorders

 描述（申请人提供）：语音工作记忆是语言相关的声音在短期记忆中保持的机制。语音工作记忆是认知、发展和临床神经心理学以及言语-语言病理学的核心结构，在语言习得、词汇发展、阅读学习和语言理解中起着重要作用。语音工作记忆缺陷是许多发育性沟通障碍的特征，包括发育性语言障碍（特定语言障碍）、发育性阅读障碍（阅读障碍）、自闭症和唐氏综合征。即使在成年期，语音工作记忆缺陷仍然对发育性语言障碍患者的语言能力和心理社会功能有害。然而，以前没有人尝试使用类似于临床敏感措施的任务（如非单词重复）来研究语音工作记忆的大脑基础。此外，几乎没有人知道发育性语言障碍患者的语音工作记忆障碍是如何从神经生理学或神经解剖学的差异中产生的。相应地，本项目的第一个目标是确定具有典型语言能力的成年人大脑中临床语音工作记忆评估所招募的规范神经系统（目标1）。关键是，我们将确定语音工作记忆的大脑基础是否与特定领域语言加工或一般领域认知能力的神经系统相关。这将有助于调和关于语音工作记忆如何在大脑中工作的两种相互竞争的理论，并为非单词重复测试的临床解释提供信息。该项目的第二个目标是研究持续性发展性语言障碍成年人大脑中的语音工作记忆，包括他们与对照组的差异以及神经反应的个体差异如何与语言能力的行为差异相关（目标2）。最后，我们将从发育性语言障碍儿童的较小样本中收集试点数据，以支持未来的研究，旨在了解发育性语言障碍儿童的大脑差异。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Phonological working memory is the mechanism by which language-relevant sounds are maintained in short- term memory. Phonological working memory is a core construct in cognitive, developmental, and clinical neuropsychology, as well as speech-language pathology, and plays an important role in language acquisition, vocabulary development, learning to read, and language comprehension. Phonological working memory deficits are characteristic of numerous developmental disorders of communication, including developmental language disorder (specific language impairment), developmental reading disorder (dyslexia), autism, and Down syndrome. Even in adulthood, phonological working memory deficits remain deleterious to the language abilities and psychosocial functioning of individuals with developmental language disorders. However, there has been no prior attempt to investigate the brain bases of phonological working memory using tasks analogous to clinically sensitive measures such as nonword repetition. Moreover, virtually nothing is known about how phonological working memory impairments in individuals with developmental language disorders arise from differences in neurophysiology or neuroanatomy. Correspondingly, the first goal of this project is to deter- mine the normative neural systems recruited by clinical phonological working memory assessments in the brains of adults with typical language abilities (Aim 1). Critically, we will ascertain whether the brain bases of phonological working memory are related to neural systems underlying domain-specific linguistic processing or domain-general cognitive abilities. This will help reconcile two competing theories about how phonological working memory works in the brain, as well as inform the clinical interpretation of nonword repetition tests. The second goal of this project is to examine phonological working memory in the brains of adults with persistent developmental language disorder, including how they differ from controls and how individual variability in neural responses is related to behavioral differences in language ability (Aim 2). Finally, we will collect pilot data from a smaller sample of children with developmental language disorder in support of future research aimed at understanding brain differences in children with developmental language disorders.