Skip Navigation



Cerebral Cortex Advance Access published online on June 17, 2008
Cerebral Cortex, doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn097
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dubois, J.
Right arrow Articles by Dehaene-Lambertz, G.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Dubois, J.
Right arrow Articles by Dehaene-Lambertz, G.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

Structural Asymmetries in the Infant Language and Sensori-Motor Networks

J. Dubois1,2, L. Hertz-Pannier2,3,4,5, A. Cachia2,6,7,8, J. F. Mangin2,9, D. Le Bihan2,10 and G. Dehaene-Lambertz2,11

1 CEA, UNAF, CEA/DSV/I2BM/Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, 91403 Orsay, France, 2 IFR49, 75013 Paris, France, 3 CEA, Laboratoire de recherche biomédicale, CEA/SAC/DSV/I2BM/NeuroSpin, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France, 4 AP-HP, Radiologie Pédiatrique, Hôpital Necker-Enfants Malades, 75013 Paris, France, 5 INSERM, U663, 75013 Paris, France; Université Paris, 75013 Paris, France, 6 INSERM-CEA, U797, CEA/DSV/I2BM/Service Hospitalier Frédéric Joliot, 91403 Orsay, France, 7 Université Paris-Sud, 91403 Orsay, France, 8 Université Paris Descartes, 75013 Paris, France, 9 CEA, Laboratoire de neuroimagerie assistée par ordinateur, CEA/SAC/DSV/I2BM/NeuroSpin, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France, 10 CEA/SAC/DSV/I2BM/NeuroSpin, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France, 11 INSERM, U562, CEA/SAC/DSV/I2BM/NeuroSpin, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Address correspondence to Jessica Dubois, PhD, U663 Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades, 149 rue de Sèvres, 75015 Paris, France. Email: jessica.dubois{at}centraliens.net.

Both language capacity and strongly lateralized hand preference are among the most intriguing particularities of the human species. They are associated in the adult brain with functional and anatomical hemispheric asymmetries in the speech perception–production network and in the sensori-motor system. Only studies in early life can help us to understand how such asymmetries arise during brain development, and to which point structural left–right differences are the source or the consequence of functional lateralization. In this study, we aimed to provide new in vivo structural markers of hemispheric asymmetries in infants from 1 to 4 months of age, with diffusion tensor imaging. We used 3 complementary analysis methods based on local diffusion indices and spatial localizations of tracts. After a prospective approach over the whole brain, we demonstrated early leftward asymmetries in the arcuate fasciculus and in the cortico-spinal tract. These results suggest that the early macroscopic geometry, microscopic organization, and maturation of these white matter bundles are related to the development of later functional lateralization.

Key Words: development • DTI • infant • language • laterality • maturation • motor • white matter


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer:
Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.