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. 2004 Mar;89(2):F112–F118. doi: 10.1136/adc.2001.005314

Lateralisation of language function in young adults born very preterm

T Rushe, C Temple, L Rifkin, P Woodruff, E Bullmore, A Stewart, A Simmons, T Russell, R Murray
PMCID: PMC1756037  PMID: 14977893

Abstract

Objective: To explore, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the functional organisation of phonological processing in young adults born very preterm.

Subjects: Six right handed male subjects with radiological evidence of thinning of the corpus callosum were selected from a cohort of very preterm subjects. Six normal right handed male volunteers acted as controls.

Method: Blood oxygenation level dependent contrast echoplanar images were acquired over five minutes at 1.5 T while subjects performed the tasks. During the ON condition, subjects were visually presented with pairs of non-words and asked to press a key when a pair of words rhymed (phonological processing). This task alternated with the OFF condition, which required subjects to make letter case judgments of visually presented pairs of consonant letter strings (orthographic processing). Generic brain activation maps were constructed from individual images by sinusoidal regression and non-parametric testing. Between group differences in the mean power of experimental response were identified on a voxel wise basis by analysis of variance.

Results: Compared with controls, the subjects with thinning of the corpus callosum showed significantly reduced power of response in the left hemisphere, including the peristriate cortex and the cerebellum, as well as in the right parietal association area. Significantly increased power of response was observed in the right precentral gyrus and the right supplementary motor area.

Conclusions: The data show evidence of increased frontal and decreased occipital activation in male subjects with neurodevelopmental thinning of the corpus callosum, which may be due to the operation of developmental compensatory mechanisms.

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Figure 1 .

Figure 1

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Image from a very preterm subject showing evidence of thinning of the corpus callosum.

Figure 2 .

Figure 2

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Brain activation in phase with non-word rhyming (shown in yellow) and case alternation judgment (shown in blue) of six controls (A) and six very preterm subjects with thinning of the corpus callosum (B). For each brain image, the left hemisphere is represented on the right of the image, and the right hemisphere is represented on the left.

Figure 3 .

Figure 3

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Brain activation pattern showing the regional differences between the two groups (six very preterm subjects and six controls) after analysis of covariance. Regions shown in yellow are those that show significantly more activation in the control group. Regions shown in red are those that show significantly more activation for the very preterm subjects with evidence of thinning of the corpus callosum.

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