A 10-year longitudinal fMRI study of narrative comprehension in children and adolescents

Abstract

Comprehension of spoken narratives requires coordination of multiple language skills. As such, for normal children narrative skills develop well into the school years and, during this period, are particularly vulnerable in the face of brain injury or developmental disorder. For these reasons, we sought to determine the developmental trajectory of narrative processing using longitudinal fMRI scanning. 30 healthy children between the ages of 5 and 18 enrolled at ages 5, 6, or 7, were examined annually for up to 10 years. At each fMRI session, children were presented with a set of five, 30s–long, stories containing 9, 10, or 11 sentences designed to be understood by a 5 year old child. FMRI data analysis was conducted based on a hierarchical linear model (HLM) that was modified to investigate developmental changes while accounting for missing data and controlling for factors such as age, linguistic performance and IQ. Performance testing conducted after each scan indicated well above the chance (p < 0.002) comprehension performance. There was a linear increase with increasing age in bilateral superior temporal cortical activation (BA 21 and 22) linked to narrative processing. Conversely, age-related decreases in cortical activation were observed in bilateral occipital regions, cingulate and cuneus, possibly reflecting changes in the default mode networks. The dynamic changes observed in this longitudinal fMRI study support the increasing role of bilateral BAs 21 and 22 in narrative comprehension, involving non-domain-specific integration in order to achieve final story interpretation. The presence of a continued linear development of this area throughout childhood and teenage years with no apparent plateau, indicates that full maturation of narrative processing skills has not yet occurred and that it may be delayed to early adulthood.

The influence of gender and gender typicality on autobiographical memory across event types and age groups

“…Thus, it is especially provocative that there are reliable gender differences in autobiographical narratives (see , for a review), such that females tell more detailed, more elaborated, more emotionally expressive, and more relationally oriented personal narratives than do males. Equally importantly, we do not see gender differences in other forms of narratives, such as fictional stories (Szaflarski et al, 2012;Weiss, Kemmler, Deisenhammer, Fleischhacker, & Delazer, 2003) or narrative descriptions of witnessed events that are not personally significant (Jack, Leov, & Zajac, 2014). These patterns suggest that the observed gender differences are not related to narrative skills per se, but are rooted in gender differences in narrating important aspects of identity.…”

Dynamic changes in network activations characterize early learning of a natural language

“…However, like the Veroude et al study, we also focused on adult learners. A study of adults, as opposed to children, allows for a view of activation changes associated with learning that is independent of the changes associated with maturation (e.g., Plante, Holland, & Schmithorst, 2006; Schmithorst, Holland, & Plante, 2007; Szaflarski, Altaye, Rajagopal, Eaton, Meng, Plante, & Holland, 2012; Szaflarski, Schmithorst, Altaye, Byars, Rett, Plante, & Holland, 2006). In children who are acquiring language, these two constructs can be difficult to dissociate.…”

Age at stroke determines post-stroke language lateralization

“…Further, studies have shown that acute and subacute language recovery may be dependent on different neural substrates, with early contributions from the right hemisphere and later language abilities dependent on the left hemispheric peristroke regions (Saur et al, 2006). This issue – timing of the insult – is very important as age-dependent changes in language localization and lateralization have been observed in various cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of healthy children and adults (Springer et al, 1999; Szaflarski et al, 2002, 2006a, 2012a, 2012b). Thus, an acute lesion may have a different effect on function recovery across ages.…”