Development of communication brain: Functional connectivity

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24300105
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Cognitive science
• Research Institution: Keio University
• Principal Investigator: MINAGAWA Yasuyo 慶應義塾大学, 文学部, 准教授 (90521732)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): YAMAMOTO Jun-ichi 慶應義塾大学, 文学部, 教授 (60202389) ; DAN Ippeita 中央大学, 理工学部, 教授 (20399380)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): ARIMITSU Takeshi 慶應義塾大学, 医学部, 助教 (60383840) ; YAGIHASHI Tatsuhiko 慶應義塾大学, 医学部, 助教 (10383770)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 発達障害 / 音韻 / NIRS / 脳機能結合 / 早産児 / コミュニケーション / 母子愛着 / 音声知覚

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The present study investigated whether and how functional cerebral activity and connectivity in the early developmental stage relate to later language and social development. For this purpose, we performed a longitudinal study for typically developing infants, preterm infants and infants-at-risk at their age between 0 to 3 years-old to collect both behavioral and neurophysiological data. The results revealed that cerebral response to phonemic contrast can predict later language development particularly language production. Furthermore, our experiment using maternal vs. stranger’s speech indicated that exclusively for term infants, functional connectivities during listening to maternal speech were strengthened in the language brain areas and anterior superior temporal gyrus on the right side which is associated with social voice identification. These results suggest that cerebral activity in the early development can be a suitable predictor for later language and social development.

Free Research Field

発達認知神経科学