Syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory in preschoolers’ brain: An fNIRS longitudinal study
Understanding how children acquire syntactic structures from a limited set of grammatical rules and use them creatively to convey meaning has been a longstanding interest for scientific communities. Previous studies on syntactic development have revealed its close correlation with the development of...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2025-01-01
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| Series: | NeuroImage |
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| Online Access: | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811924004841 |
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| author | Dongsu Yan Tongfu Fang Wei He Min Xu |
| author_facet | Dongsu Yan Tongfu Fang Wei He Min Xu |
| author_sort | Dongsu Yan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Understanding how children acquire syntactic structures from a limited set of grammatical rules and use them creatively to convey meaning has been a longstanding interest for scientific communities. Previous studies on syntactic development have revealed its close correlation with the development of vocabulary and working memory. Our study sought to elucidate how the relations between syntactic processing, word processing, and working memory were instantiated in the brain, and how earlier neural patterns might predict language abilities one year later. We employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy to examine among preschool children (N=50, Mage=61.5 months) the neural activation associated with processing sentences of varying syntactic complexities, as well as tasks assessing word comprehension and working memory. The results revealed greater brain activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) for syntactically complex as compared to simple sentences, and the activation magnitude was correlated with working memory. There was also a link between neural activity for sentence comprehension and word comprehension in bilateral superior temporal regions (STG). Moreover, the inter-regional and inter-hemispheric connectivity of IFG and STG/MTG could successfully predict children's future language comprehension one year later. The findings provide new insights into how the brain supports syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-f7cf293386ce4e8294359c018d61e952 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1095-9572 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | NeuroImage |
| spelling | doaj-art-f7cf293386ce4e8294359c018d61e9522025-01-11T06:38:35ZengElsevierNeuroImage1095-95722025-01-01305120987Syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory in preschoolers’ brain: An fNIRS longitudinal studyDongsu Yan0Tongfu Fang1Wei He2Min Xu3School of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, ChinaSchool of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, ChinaSchool of Studies in Fundamental Education, Guangzhou Sport University, Guangzhou, ChinaSchool of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen, China; Corresponding author.Understanding how children acquire syntactic structures from a limited set of grammatical rules and use them creatively to convey meaning has been a longstanding interest for scientific communities. Previous studies on syntactic development have revealed its close correlation with the development of vocabulary and working memory. Our study sought to elucidate how the relations between syntactic processing, word processing, and working memory were instantiated in the brain, and how earlier neural patterns might predict language abilities one year later. We employed functional near-infrared spectroscopy to examine among preschool children (N=50, Mage=61.5 months) the neural activation associated with processing sentences of varying syntactic complexities, as well as tasks assessing word comprehension and working memory. The results revealed greater brain activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) for syntactically complex as compared to simple sentences, and the activation magnitude was correlated with working memory. There was also a link between neural activity for sentence comprehension and word comprehension in bilateral superior temporal regions (STG). Moreover, the inter-regional and inter-hemispheric connectivity of IFG and STG/MTG could successfully predict children's future language comprehension one year later. The findings provide new insights into how the brain supports syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811924004841Syntactic developmentVocabularyWorking memoryPredictionfNIRS |
| spellingShingle | Dongsu Yan Tongfu Fang Wei He Min Xu Syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory in preschoolers’ brain: An fNIRS longitudinal study NeuroImage Syntactic development Vocabulary Working memory Prediction fNIRS |
| title | Syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory in preschoolers’ brain: An fNIRS longitudinal study |
| title_full | Syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory in preschoolers’ brain: An fNIRS longitudinal study |
| title_fullStr | Syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory in preschoolers’ brain: An fNIRS longitudinal study |
| title_full_unstemmed | Syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory in preschoolers’ brain: An fNIRS longitudinal study |
| title_short | Syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory in preschoolers’ brain: An fNIRS longitudinal study |
| title_sort | syntactic development and its interplay with word processing and working memory in preschoolers brain an fnirs longitudinal study |
| topic | Syntactic development Vocabulary Working memory Prediction fNIRS |
| url | http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811924004841 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dongsuyan syntacticdevelopmentanditsinterplaywithwordprocessingandworkingmemoryinpreschoolersbrainanfnirslongitudinalstudy AT tongfufang syntacticdevelopmentanditsinterplaywithwordprocessingandworkingmemoryinpreschoolersbrainanfnirslongitudinalstudy AT weihe syntacticdevelopmentanditsinterplaywithwordprocessingandworkingmemoryinpreschoolersbrainanfnirslongitudinalstudy AT minxu syntacticdevelopmentanditsinterplaywithwordprocessingandworkingmemoryinpreschoolersbrainanfnirslongitudinalstudy |