Dynamic Data Visualization with Weave and Brain Choropleths

An fMRI study of implicit language learning in developmental language impairment

Individuals with developmental language impairment can show deficits into adulthood. This suggests that neural networks related to their language do not normalize with time. We examined the ability of 16 adults with and without impaired language to learn individual words in an unfamiliar language. Adults with impaired language were able to segment individual words from running speech, but needed more time to do so than their normal-language peers. ICA analysis of fMRI data indicated that adults with language impairment activate a neural network that is comparable to that of adults with normal language. However, a regional analysis indicated relative hyperactivation of a collection of regions associated with language processing. These results are discussed with reference to the Statistical Learning Framework and the sub-skills thought to relate to word segmentation.

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Adults with developmental language impairment were imaged during a word segmentation task in an unfamiliar natural language.

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Impaired adults learned to identify individual words, although it took them longer than their typical language peers.

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The impaired group used the same learning network as the typical group, arguing against recruitment of additional regions.

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Hyper-activation in language regions characterized the impaired group, unless performance was equated between groups.

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This suggests that hyper-activation for the impaired group reflects greater effort by learners at earlier stages of learning.