Structural brain changes linked to delayed first language acquisition in congenitally deaf individuals

Early language experience is essential for the development of a high level of linguistic proficiency in adulthood and in a recent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiment, we showed that a delayed acquisition of a first language results in changes in the functional organization of the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Fla.), 2013-02, Vol.66, p.42-49
Main Authors: Pénicaud, Sidonie, Klein, Denise, Zatorre, Robert J., Chen, Jen-Kai, Witcher, Pamela, Hyde, Krista, Mayberry, Rachel I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Age
Age Factors
Age of language acquisition
Anatomical brain imaging
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - pathology
Brain plasticity
Brain research
Brain tissue concentration
Deafness
Deafness - pathology
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
Language acquisition
Language Development
Male
Middle Aged
NMR
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Sign Language
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
Voxel-based morphometry (VBM)
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Summary:Early language experience is essential for the development of a high level of linguistic proficiency in adulthood and in a recent functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) experiment, we showed that a delayed acquisition of a first language results in changes in the functional organization of the adult brain (Mayberry et al., 2011). The present study extends the question to explore if delayed acquisition of a first language also modulates the structural development of the brain. To this end, we carried out anatomical MRI in the same group of congenitally deaf individuals who varied in the age of acquisition of a first language, American Sign Language —ASL (Mayberry et al., 2011) and used a neuroanatomical technique, Voxel-Based Morphometry (VBM), to explore changes in gray and white matter concentrations across the brain related to the age of first language acquisition. The results show that delayed acquisition of a first language is associated with changes in tissue concentration in the occipital cortex close to the area that has been found to show functional recruitment during language processing in these deaf individuals with a late age of acquisition. These findings suggest that a lack of early language experience affects not only the functional but also the anatomical organization of the brain.
ISSN:1053-8119
1095-9572
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.09.076