Abstract
Developmental language disorder (DLD) and developmental speech disorder (DSD) are common, yet their etiologies are not well understood. Atypical volume of the inferior and posterior language regions and striatum have been reported in DLD; however, variability in both methodology and study findings limits interpretations. Imaging research within DSD, on the other hand, is scarce. The present study compared grey matter volume in children with DLD, DSD, and typically developing speech and language. Compared to typically developing controls, children with DLD had larger volume in the right cerebellum, possibly associated with the procedural learning deficits that have been proposed in DLD. Children with DSD showed larger volume in the left inferior occipital lobe compared to controls, which may indicate a compensatory role of the visual processing regions due to sub-optimal auditory-perceptual processes. Overall, these findings suggest that different neural systems may be involved in the specific deficits related to DLD and DSD.
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Acknowledgements
LP is funded by an Australian Government Research Training Program Stipend Scholarship. AM is supported by National Health and Medical Research Council Career (NHMRC) Development Fellowship #607315 and Practitioner Fellowship #1105008; NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) in Child Language #1023493; NHMRC CRE Moving Ahead #1023043; and HEARing Collaborative Research Centre. This research is also supported by the CRE in Child Language #1023493 and the Victorian Government’s Operational Infrastructure Support Program. Thank you to Angela Mayes, Cristina Mei, and Sarah Barton for assistance with data collection.
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Pigdon, L., Willmott, C., Reilly, S. et al. Grey matter volume in developmental speech and language disorder. Brain Struct Funct 224, 3387–3398 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-019-01978-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-019-01978-7