Table 3.
Summary of fNIRS studies investigating language in schoolchildren.
| Study | N | Mage | Age range | Task | Conditions/Factors | Main findings | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sugiura et al., 2011 | 484 | 8.93 | 6–10 | word repetition | language (Japanese vs. English) word frequency (high vs. low) hemisphere (left vs. right) |
native language elicited greater activation in superior / middle temporal and angular / supramarginal gyri; dominant activation of the right inferior frontal gyrus; low-frequency words elicited more activation in the right supramarginal gyrus, while high-frequency words elicited more activation in the left angular gyrus; involvement of the right hemisphere while acquiring unfamiliar/low-frequency words; a right-to-left shift in inferior parietal lobule as lexical knowledge increases irrespective of language |
| 2 | Kawakubo et al., 2011 | 48 22 |
10.90 27.30 |
5–18 21–37 |
letter fluency | age (children/adolescents vs. adult) gender (male vs. female) hemisphere (left vs. right) letter frequency as covariate |
developmental change with age in the frontopolar regions (BA9/10); larger oxygenated hemoglobin changes in adult males than child/adolescent males; gender difference in activation of the frontopolar prefrontal cortex in adulthood but not from childhood to adolescence |
| 3 | Tamekuchi et al., 2011 | 8 10 |
7.40 39.20 |
6–9 35–44 |
verbal fluency | task vs. baseline | greater activation in the left prefrontal cortex in children; greater activation in the right prefrontal cortex in adults |
| 4 | Kovelman et al., 2012 | 15 | 7.00 | 6–9 | rhythm perception phonological awareness rhyming word matching |
task vs. rest frequency (0.5, 1.5, 3.0 Hz) hemisphere (left vs. right) |
greater activation of right hemisphere toward the slow rhythmic stimuli, and left hemisphere toward both faster and slower frequencies; overall better ability to process rhythmic sensitivity in right hemisphere, while a select sensitivity to a preferred range of slow rhythmic modulations in left hemisphere, which might be responsible for cross-modal language processing and reading acquisition |
| 5 | Jasinska and Petitto, 2013 | 20 bc 20 mc 10 ba 9 ma |
8.90 8.92 19.90 19.00 |
7–10 7–10 17–26 17–24 |
sentence judgment | age (children vs. adults) language (monolingual vs. bilingual) bilingualism (early-exposed vs. later-exposed) hemisphere (left vs. right) sentence type (object-subject vs. subject-object) |
greater activation in the language areas, superior temporal gyrus, inferior frontal gyrus in right hemisphere in bilingual children and adults; greater activation in classic language areas in early-exposed, while greater activation of prefrontal cortex in later-exposed; modification of the language processing areas via early-life language experiences |
| 6 | Jasinska and Petitto, 2014 | 8 mc 8 mc 8 ma 8 bc 8 bc 8 ba |
7.70 9.30 18.90 7.60 9.20 18.60 |
6–8.5 8.5–10 18–20 6–8.5 8.5–10 18–20 |
single-word reading | age (younger children, older children, adults) language (monolingual vs. bilingual) word regularity (regular, irregular, non-sense) |
age-related shift in the left inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus; greater and more variable activation in bilateral inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and rostrolateral prefrontal cortex; modification of the neural systems underlying reading development through different early-life language experience |
| 7 | Tando et al., 2014 | 9 9 10 9 9 |
7.60 10.70 13.50 17.50 34.80 |
6–8 9–11 12–14 15–18 n/a |
verbal fluency | task vs. rest age (5 groups) time course (4 times) |
increasing activation of frontopolar region in prefrontal cortex with age; decreased performance with time in all groups; beginning of maturation of verbal retrieval functions in early adolescence |
| 8 | Sugiura et al., 2015 | 484 | 8.93 | 6–10 | word repetition | language (Japanese vs. English) word frequency (high vs. low) gender (male vs. female) hemisphere (left vs. right) |
native language elicited greater activation in superior / middle temporal and angular / supramarginal gyri; activation of the angular and supramarginal gyri during high-frequency word in males but not in females |
| 9 | Paquette et al., 2015 | 10 10 11 9 |
5.00 8.60 13.82 24.00 |
3–6 7–10 11–16 19–30 |
verbal fluency | task vs. rest age (4 groups) hemisphere (left vs. right) brain region (Broca vs. Wernicke) |
greater activation in left hemisphere, with weaker activation in right hemisphere during task; increased activation in bilateral hemisphere during the task with age; left hemisphere specialization for language from early childhood |
| 10 | Tellis and Tellis, 2016 | 50 | 21.90 | 11–52 | silent and aloud readingfree speech finger tapping | gender (male vs. female) task (silent reading, reading aloud, free speech, finger tapping) hemisphere (left vs. right) brain region (BA 44&45, BA 21,22,39,40,41&42) |
greater activation in bilateral frontal regions during free speech; no gender differences; significant differences in right superior temporal gyrus and primary auditory association cortex between tasks; significant differences in left supramarginal gyrus between tasks |
| 11 | Gallagher et al., 2016 | 6 8 11 8 |
4.67 8.75 14.27 24.75 |
3–6 7–10 11–16 20–30 |
verbal fluency | task vs. rest age (4 groups) hemisphere (left vs. right) brain region (bilateral frontal and temporal areas) |
greater activation in left hemisphere for language networks both during the task and at rest; a very good concordance between functional connectivity and conventional results was observed |
| 12 | Jasinska et al., 2017 | 11 mc 7 bc1 6 bc2 |
8.09 8.00 8.25 |
7–9 7–9 7–9 |
word reading | language (monolingual, bilingual 1, bilingual 2) words (irregular, regular, pseudo-words) brain region (left inferior frontal gyrus vs. left superior temporal gyrus) |
greater activation in left posterior temporal regions associated with direct sound-to-print phonological analyses in bilinguals; greater activation in left frontal regions associated with assembled phonology analyses in bilinguals; significant impact of bilinguals' two languages on children's neurocognitive architecture for learning to read |
| 13 | Walsh et al., 2017 | 16 sc 16 cc |
9.10 9.20 |
7–11 7–11 |
picture description task | group (stuttering children vs. controls) hemisphere (left vs. right) brain region (inferior frontal gyrus, premotor cortex, superior temporal gyrus) |
deactivation in left dorsal inferior frontal gyrus and premotor cortex in stuttering children as compared to control children |
| 14 | Mücke et al., 2018 | 50 | 10.60 | 10–11 | semantic and phonetic verbal fluency mental arithmetic task |
group (high vs. low moderate-to-vigorous physical activity) task (semantic verbal fluency, phonetic verbal fluency, mental arithmetic) |
no group differences in response to the cognitive tasks; greater bilateral increase in the anterior prefrontal region during the semantic verbal fluency; increase in the left anterior prefrontal region in response to the phonetic verbal fluency |
| 15 | Groba et al., 2018 | 18 bc3 28 mc |
4.98 5.00 |
4–6 4–6 |
adjective learning task with descriptive hand gesture | language (monolingual vs. bilingual) hemisphere (left vs. right) brain region (prefrontal, frontal, fronto-temporal, temporal and temporo-parietal) |
greater activation in right superior temporal sulcus in bilinguals during learning of adjectives due to heightened pragmatic sensitivity |
Bc, bilingual children; mc, monolingual children; ba, bilingual adults; ma, monolingual adults; sc, stuttering children; cc, control children; bc1, Spanish-English; bc2, French-English; bc3, Spanish-German. Study 8 is a reanalysis of data of study 1.