Fig. 5.

A summary of our previous and the current findings on semantic specialization in the left middle temporal gyrus (MTG) and inferior frontal gyrus pars triangularis (IFG.tri) in children at different ages for both word and sentence processing suggesting reduced semantic specialization. We hypothesize that children first rely on language regions that are semantically specialized at the word level during sentence processing. As children improve their syntactic skills, those semantic sensitive regions at the word-level also become more syntactically sensitive, leading to reduced semantic specialization. The upper figure shows studies during word processing that suggest a developmental transition of increased semantic specialization from the left MTG¹² to both the left MTG and IFG pars triangularis^13,14. The lower figure displays studies during sentence processing that indicate a developmental transition of reduced semantic specialization from strong²⁶, to weak²⁷, to none (the current study) in the left MTG, and from strong²⁵ to none (the current study) in IFG pars triangularis.