RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Lateralisation of language function in young adults born very preterm
JF Archives of Disease in Childhood - Fetal and Neonatal Edition
JO Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
SP F112
OP F118
DO 10.1136/adc.2001.005314
VO 89
IS 2
A1 T M Rushe
A1 C M Temple
A1 L Rifkin
A1 P W R Woodruff
A1 E T Bullmore
A1 A L Stewart
A1 A Simmons
A1 T A Russell
A1 R M Murray
YR 2004
UL http://fn.bmj.com/content/89/2/F112.abstract
AB 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.