Effects of early lesion on language and gesture comprehension: An fMRI study.

描述（由申请人提供）：使用语言和象征性手势是人类独特的能力，使人们能够相互交流。尽管这些能力在人类交流中处于中心地位，但关于语言和手势在大脑中是如何组织的，以及在早期脑损伤后它们如何重组，还没有达成共识。该应用程序将使用功能性MRI来检查患有产前或围产期中风的个体及其典型发育中的兄弟姐妹的语言和手势理解的系统级功能神经解剖学。我们将研究诸如损伤的侧边性、部位、类型和大小等因素如何影响语言和手势系统的组织。为了实现这些目标，我们不仅将利用传统的功能磁共振成像分析方法，还将使用先进的功能磁共振成像数据分析方法，这将使我们能够专注于损伤后分布式网络的组织。这与之前的研究不同，之前的研究重点是单个大脑区域或语言功能侧化的差异。这项研究具有与公共卫生直接相关的若干理论和应用意义。对早期损伤的发育结果的研究将回答关于功能缺陷随时间的稳定性的问题，以及人类大脑对早期损伤的反应方式。关于早期损伤后大脑如何组织的信息可以为未来的研究、干预和治疗工作提供信息。该研究还试图通过将先进的功能磁共振成像数据分析方法应用于脑损伤人群，来回应创新研究策略的呼吁。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The use of language and symbolic gesture are uniquely human capacities that allow people to communicate with each other. Despite the centrality of these capacities to human communication, there is no consensus concerning how language and gesture are organized in the brain or how they might reorganize following early brain injury. This application will use functional MRI to examine the systems-level functional neuroanatomy of language and gesture comprehension in individuals with prenatal or perinatal stroke, and their typically developing siblings. We will investigate how factors, such as lesion laterality and site, type, and size, affect the organization of language and gesture systems. To achieve these goals, we will not only take advantage of conventional methods of fMRI analysis, but will also use advanced methods of analysis of functional MRI data, which will allow us to focus on the organization of distributed networks following injury. This represents a departure from prior research, where the focus is on individual brain regions or differences in lateralization of language function. This study has several theoretical and applied implications directly relevant to public health. The investigation of developmental outcomes of early lesion will answer questions about the stability of functional deficits over time, and about the ways in which the human brain reacts to early damage. Information about how the brain organizes following early damage can inform future research, intervention, and treatment efforts. The study also attempts to answer the call for innovative research strategies by applying advanced methods of fMRI data analysis to populations with brain injury.