Fig. 3.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging results and correlations. Whole-brain results (p < 0.001, corrected) reveal interactions between age and sentence complexity in left pars opercularis (PO), left inferior parietal lobe together with the posterior superior temporal gyrus (IPL/STG), bilateral supplementary motor area (SMA), and bilateral cerebellum. (A, B) Planned comparisons for language-related ROIs on Brain Functional Complexity Scores (i.e., percent single change for simple sentences subtracted from percent signal change for complex sentences; p < 0.01, corrected) indicate increased functional selectivity for syntactic complexity with age. (C, D) Brain Functional Complexity Scores of our ROIs are positively related to digit span. (E, F) Brain Functional Complexity Scores of our ROIs are negatively related to gray matter probability. *< 0.013 (adjusted to α-level); **< 0.01; ***< 0.001.