Brain and Behavior / Weaker semantic language lateralization associated with better semantic language performance in healthy righthanded children

Introduction The relationship between language abilities and language lateralization in the developing brain is important for our understanding of the neural architecture of language development. Methods We investigated 35 righthanded children and adolescents aged 716 years with a functional magnetic resonance imaging language paradigm and a comprehensive language and verbal memory examination. Results We found that less lateralized language was significantly correlated with better language performance across areas of the brain and across different language tasks. Less lateralized language in the overall brain was associated with better inscanner task accuracy on a semantic language decision task and outofscanner vocabulary and verbal fluency. Specifically, less lateralized frontal lobe language dominance was associated with better inscanner task accuracy and outofscanner verbal fluency. Furthermore, less lateralized parietal language was associated with better outofscanner verbal memory across learning, short and longdelay trials. In contrast, we did not find any relationship between temporal lobe language laterality and verbal performance. Conclusions This study suggests that semantic language performance is better with some involvement of the nondominant hemisphere.(VLID)480007