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Fetal temporal sulcus depth asymmetry has prognostic value for language development.

ABSTRACT: In most humans, the superior temporal sulcus (STS) shows a rightward depth asymmetry. This asymmetry can not only be observed in adults, but is already recognizable in the fetal brain. As the STS lies adjacent to brain areas important for language, STS depth asymmetry may represent an anatomical marker for language abilities. This study investigated the prognostic value of STS depth asymmetry in healthy fetuses for later language abilities, language localization, and language-related white matter tracts. Less right lateralization of the fetal STS depth was significantly associated with better verbal abilities, with fetal STS depth asymmetry explaining more than 40% of variance in verbal skills 6-13 years later. Furthermore, less right fetal STS depth asymmetry correlated with increased left language localization during childhood. We hypothesize that earlier and/or more localized fetal development of the left temporal cortex is accompanied by an earlier development of the left STS and is favorable for early language learning. If the findings of this pilot study hold true in larger samples of healthy children and in different clinical populations, fetal STS asymmetry has the potential to become a diagnostic biomarker of the maturity and integrity of neural correlates of language.

SUBMITTER: Bartha-Doering L

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9883513 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Fetal temporal sulcus depth asymmetry has prognostic value for language development.

Bartha-Doering Lisa L Kollndorfer Kathrin K Schwartz Ernst E Fischmeister Florian Ph S FPS Langs Georg G Weber Michael M Lackner-Schmelz Sonja S Kienast Patric P Stümpflen Marlene M Taymourtash Athena A Mandl Sophie S Alexopoulos Johanna J Prayer Daniela D Seidl Rainer R Kasprian Gregor G

Communications biology 20230127 1

In most humans, the superior temporal sulcus (STS) shows a rightward depth asymmetry. This asymmetry can not only be observed in adults, but is already recognizable in the fetal brain. As the STS lies adjacent to brain areas important for language, STS depth asymmetry may represent an anatomical marker for language abilities. This study investigated the prognostic value of STS depth asymmetry in healthy fetuses for later language abilities, language localization, and language-related white matte ...[more]

PMID: 36707693

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Project description:Behavioral evidence and theory suggest gesture and language processing may be part of a shared cognitive system for communication. While much research demonstrates both gesture and language recruit regions along perisylvian cortex, relatively less work has tested functional segregation within these regions on an individual level. Additionally, while most work has focused on a shared semantic network, less has examined shared regions for processing communicative intent. To address these questions, functional and structural MRI data were collected from 24 adult participants while viewing videos of an experimenter producing communicative, Participant-Directed Gestures (PDG) (e.g., "Hello, come here"), noncommunicative Self-adaptor Gestures (SG) (e.g., smoothing hair), and three written text conditions: (1) Participant-Directed Sentences (PDS), matched in content to PDG, (2) Third-person Sentences (3PS), describing a character's actions from a third-person perspective, and (3) meaningless sentences, Jabberwocky (JW). Surface-based conjunction and individual functional region of interest analyses identified shared neural activation between gesture (PDGvsSG) and language processing using two different language contrasts. Conjunction analyses of gesture (PDGvsSG) and Third-person Sentences versus Jabberwocky revealed overlap within left anterior and posterior superior temporal sulcus (STS). Conjunction analyses of gesture and Participant-Directed Sentences to Third-person Sentences revealed regions sensitive to communicative intent, including the left middle and posterior STS and left inferior frontal gyrus. Further, parametric modulation using participants' ratings of stimuli revealed sensitivity of left posterior STS to individual perceptions of communicative intent in gesture. These data highlight an important role of the STS in processing participant-directed communicative intent through gesture and language. Hum Brain Mapp 37:3444-3461, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Dataset Information

Fetal temporal sulcus depth asymmetry has prognostic value for language development.

Publications

Fetal temporal sulcus depth asymmetry has prognostic value for language development.

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