When the Brain Cares: Personal interests amplify engagement of language, self-reference, and reward regions in the brains of children with and without autism.

ABSTRACT: Human language is shaped by individual experiences and interests. However, to study language in the brain, researchers use generic stimuli, avoiding the variable personal interests that typically animate language. Thus, it is unknown how personal interests affect language function in the brain. We conducted personalized functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in 20 typically-developing children as they listened to personalized narratives about their specific interest and non-personalized, generic narratives. Personally-interesting narratives amplified engagement of language regions, producing more consistent activation patterns across individuals - even though each narrative was unique - than the generic narratives. The personalized narratives also engaged self-reference and reward ar

SUBMITTER: Olson HA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10055317 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature