The Neuroradiological Findings of Children with Developmental Language Disorder

Abstract

PurposeTo investigate the general characteristics of glucose metabolism distribution and the functional deficit in the brain of children with developmental language delay (DLD), we compared functional neuroradiological studies such as positron emission tomography (PET) of a patient group of DLD children and a control group of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) children.Patients and MethodsSeventeen DLD children and 10 ADHD children under 10 years of age were recruited and divided into separate groups consisting of children less than 5 years of age or between 5 and 10 years of age. The PET findings of 4 DLD children and 6 control children whose ages ranged from 5 to 10 years were compared by Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) analysis.ResultsAll of the DLD children revealed grossly normal findings in brain MRIs, however, 87.5% of them showed grossly abnormal findings in their PET studies. Abnormal findings were most frequent in the thalamus. The patient group showed significantly decreased glucose metabolism in both frontal, temporal and right parietal areas (p < 0.005) and significantly increased metabolism in both occipital areas (p < 0.05) as compared to the control group.ConclusionThis study reveals that DLD children may show abnormal findings on functional neuroradiological studies, even though structural neuroradiological studies such as a brain MRI do not show any abnormal findings. Frequent abnormal findings on functional neuroradiological studies of DLD children, especially in the subcortical area, suggests that further research with quantitative assessments of functional neuroradiological studies recruiting more DLD children and age-matched normal controls could be helpful for understanding the pathophysiology of DLD and other disorders confined to the developmental disorder spectrum.

Reinforcement learning in young adults with developmental language impairment

“…First, imaging techniques are one of the most direct approaches to examine the basal ganglia in the human brain. In previous research, there were a few studies looking at abnormal structures and functions of the brain in individuals with DLI (Badcock et al, 2012; Friederici, 2006; Hugdahl et al, 2004; Hwang et al, 2006; Im et al, 2007; Ors et al, 2005); however, none of the imaging studies of DLI looked at the structures of the basal ganglia based on an established hypothesis. Therefore, further studies are needed to explore the role of the basal ganglia regions in individuals with DLI.…”

Are individual differences in language associated with differences in the corticostriatal system? A behavioral and imaging study

“…Previous studies showed that individuals with DLI had abnormalities in the basal ganglia (Im et al, 2007;Ors et al, 2005), particularly in the caudate nucleus (Badcock et al, 2011;Herbert et al, 2003;Jernigan et al, 1991;Soriano-Mas et al, 2009;Tallal et al, 1994;Watkins et al, 2002) and in the putamen (Badcock et al, 2011;Hwang et al, 2006;Watkins et al, 2002). The current findings are consistent with findings from previous research, demonstrating abnormalities not only in the putamen but also in the globus pallidus and in the nucleus accumbens.…”

“…In terms of functional neuroimaging studies, researchers reported abnormal activities within several cortical regions, including frontal, temporal, and parietal areas, while individuals with DLI performed language-related tasks (Friederici, 2006;Hugdahl et al, 2004;Ellis Weismer et al, 2005). Im et al (2007) showed abnormal findings in children with DLI on positron emission tomography (PET) scans, and the abnormalities were confined to the thalamus, the basal ganglia, the cerebellum, and the frontal lobes, despite that brain structures of these children appeared normal in the conventional MRI scans.…”

A new measurement tool for speech development based on Ling's stages of speech acquisition in pediatric cochlear implant recipients

“…It includes 56 items each for evaluation of receptive and expressive language, and provides results as either standard scores as a percentile or equivalent ages (months) compared to that of a peer group. The SELSI has been widely used for evaluation of language development in Korean infants and children [17][18][19].…”