fMRI Activation in Language Areas Correlates with Verb Generation Performance in Children

Abstract

Functional MRI mapping of language areas in children frequently employs a covert verb generation task. Because responses are not monitored, the relationship between fMRI activation and task performance is unknown. We compared fMRI activation during covert and overt verb generation to performance during the overt task. 15 children, ages 11–13 years, listened to concrete nouns and responded with related verbs covertly and overtly. A clustered fMRI acquisition allowed for recording of overt responses without motion artifacts. Region of interest analysis was also performed in areas that exhibited correlation between activation and performance during overt verb generation in left inferior frontal and left superior temporal gyri (along with their right hemisphere homologues). Regression analysis determined that during both covert and overt generation, left hemisphere regions showed positive correlations with average counts of verbs generated during the overt task. These results suggest that increased verb generation performance leads to increased activation. In addition, overt performance may be used as an estimator of covert performance.

Key words

functional MRI - language lateralization - language skill

References

• 1 Price CJ. The anatomy of language: contributions from functional neuroimaging.  J Anat. 2000;  197 (Pt 3) 335-359
• 2 Petersen SE, Fox PT, Posner MI. et al . Positron emission tomographic studies of the cortical anatomy of single-word processing.  Nature. 1988;  331 585-589
• 3 Binder JR, Swanson SJ, Hammeke TA. et al . Determination of language dominance using functional MRI: a comparison with the Wada test.  Neurology. 1996;  46 978-984
• 4 Schmithorst VJ, Holland SK. Event-related fMRI technique for auditory processing with hemodynamics unrelated to acoustic gradient noise.  Magn Reson Med. 2004;  51 399-402
• 5 Byars AW, Holland SK, Strawsburg RH. et al . Practical aspects of conducting large-scale functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in children.  J Child Neurol. 2002;  17 885-890
• 6 Schmithorst VJ, Dardzinski BJ, Holland SK. Simultaneous correction of ghost and geometric distortion artifacts in EPI using a multiecho reference scan.  IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2001;  20 535-539
• 7 Thevenaz P, Ruttimann UE, Unser M. A pyramid approach to subpixel registration based on intensity.  IEEE Trans Image Process. 1998;  7 27-41
• 8 Talairach J, Tournoux P. Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain.. New York: Thieme Medical Publishers; 1988
• 9 Muzik O, Chugani DC, Juhasz C. et al . Statistical parametric mapping: assessment of application in children.  Neuroimage. 2000;  12 538-549
• 10 Wilke M, Schmithorst VJ, Holland SK. Assessment of spatial normalization of whole-brain magnetic resonance images in children.  Hum Brain Mapp. 2002;  17 48-60
• 11 Schmithorst VJ, Holland SK. Functional MRI evidence for disparate developmental processes underlying intelligence in boys and girls.  Neuroimage. 2006;  31 1366-1379
• 12 Holland SK, Vannest J, Mecoli M. et al . Functional MRI of language lateralization during development in children.  International J Audiol. 2007;  46 533-551
• 13 van Ettinger-Veenstra HM, Ragnehed M, Hallgren M. et al . Right-hemispheric brain activation correlates to language performance.  Neuroimage. 2010;  49 3481-3488
• 14 Yeatman JD, Ben-Shachar M, Glover GH. et al . Individual differences in auditory sentence comprehension in children: An exploratory event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation.  Brain Lang. 2010;  114 72-79
• 15 Szaflarski JP, Holland SK, Jacola LM. et al . Comprehensive presurgical functional MRI language evaluation in adult patients with epilepsy.  Epilepsy Behav. 2008;  12 74-83
• 16 Adcock JE, Wise RG, Oxbury JM. et al . Quantitative fMRI assessment of the differences in lateralization of language-related brain activation in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy.  Neuroimage. 2003;  18 423-438
• 17 Benson RR, FitzGerald DB, LeSueur LL. et al . Language dominance determined by whole brain functional MRI in patients with brain lesions.  Neurology. 1999;  52 798-809
• 18 Desmond J, Sum J, Wagner A. et al . Functional MRI measurement of language lateralization in Wada-tested patients.  Brain. 1995;  118 1411-1419
• 19 Sabsevitz DS, Swanson SJ, Hammeke TA. et al . Use of preoperative functional neuroimaging to predict language deficits from epilepsy surgery.  Neurology. 2003;  60 1788-1792
• 20 Wada J, Rasmussen T. Intracarotid injection of sodium amytal for the lateralization of cerebral speech dominance.  J Neurosurg. 1960;  17 266-282
• 21 Wada JA, Clarke R, Hamm A. Cerebral hemispheric asymmetry in humans. Cortical speech zones in 100 adults and 100 infant brains.  Arch Neurol. 1975;  32 239-246
• 22 Muller RA, Watson CE, Muzik O. et al . Motor organization after early middle cerebral artery stroke: a PET study.  Ped Neurol. 1998;  19 294-298
• 23 Brizzolara D, Pecini C, Brovedani P. et al . Timing and type of congenital brain lesion determine different patterns of language lateralization in hemiplegic children.  Neuropsychologia. 2002;  40 620-632
• 24 Booth JR, MacWhinney B, Thulborn KR. et al . Developmental and lesion effects in brain activation during sentence comprehension and mental rotation.  Dev Neuropsychol. 2000;  18 139-169
• 25 Papanicolaou AC, Simos PG, Breier JI. et al . Brain plasticity for sensory and linguistic functions: a functional imaging study using magnetoencephalography with children and young adults.  J Child Neurol. 2001;  16 241-252
• 26 Staudt M, Grodd W, Niemann G. et al . Early left periventricular brain lesions induce right hemispheric organization of speech.  Neurology. 2001;  57 122-125
• 27 Lidzba K, Staudt M, Wilke M. et al . Lesion-induced right-hemispheric language and organization of nonverbal functions.  Neuroreport. 2006;  17 929-933
• 28 Gaillard WD, Sachs BC, Whitnah JR. et al . Developmental aspects of language processing: fMRI of verbal fluency in children and adults.  Hum Brain Mapp. 2003;  18 176-185
• 29 Gaillard WD, Hertz-Pannier L, Mott SH. et al . Functional anatomy of cognitive development: fMRI of verbal fluency in children and adults.  Neurology. 2000;  54 180-185
• 30 Holland SK, Plante E, Weber Byars A. et al . Normal fMRI brain activation patterns in children performing a verb generation task.  Neuroimage. 2001;  14 837-843
• 31 Szaflarski JP, Schmithorst VJ, Altaye M. et al . A longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging study of language development in children 5 to 11 years old.  Ann Neurol. 2006;  59 796-807
• 32 Szaflarski JP, Holland SK, Schmithorst VJ. et al . fMRI study of language lateralization in children and adults.  Hum Brain Mapp. 2006;  27 202-212
• 33 Soros P, Sokoloff LG, Bose A. et al . Clustered functional MRI of overt speech production.  Neuroimage. 2006;  32 376-387
• 34 Eden GF, Joseph JE, Brown HE. et al . Utilizing hemodynamic delay and dispersion to detect fMRI signal change without auditory interference: the behavior interleaved gradients technique.  Magn Reson Med. 1999;  41 13-20
• 35 Edmister WB, Talavage TM, Ledden PJ. et al . Improved auditory cortex imaging using clustered volume acquisitions.  Hum Brain Mapp. 1999;  7 89-97
• 36 Frings M, Dimitrova A, Schorn CF. et al . Cerebellar involvement in verb generation: an fMRI study.  Neurosci Lett. 2006;  409 19-23

Correspondence