ArticleNature communications2026
Precision fMRI reveals that the language network exhibits adult-like left-hemispheric lateralization by 4 years of age.
Article in Nature communications, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Preserved topography, lateralization, selectivity, and functional connectivity of the language network in older brains.Nature communications · 2026Article
- The Extended Language Network: Language-Responsive Brain Areas Whose Contributions to Language Remain To Be Discovered.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Selectivity for high-level language processing is highly localized in individual brains.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Language comprehension in chronic aphasia relies on the language network, not the Multiple Demand network.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- The emergence of the language system in the toddler brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Neural Coding of Multiple Linguistic Components During Reading Comprehension Across Development.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Left-Right Asymmetry in Predicting Brain Activity From LLMs' Representations Emerges With Their Formal Linguistic Competence.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- Utilizing functional neuroimaging to study early language development.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2025Review
- Article
- Incorporating special interests to investigate the language system in autism: A feasibility pilot fMRI study.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- White matter connectivity linked to novel word learning in children.Brain structure & function · 2024Article
- Imaging genetics of language network functional connectivity reveals links with language-related abilities, dyslexia and handedness.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Personalized Neuroimaging Reveals the Impact of Children's Interests on Language Processing in the Brain.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Personalized neuroimaging reveals the impact of children's interests on language processing in the brain.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2024Article
- A 3.5-minute-long reading-based fMRI localizer for the language network.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)Article
- The language network responds robustly to sentences across tasks.Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.)Article
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Abstract
In adults, left hemisphere (LH) damage often leads to aphasia, but many cases of early damage leave linguistic processing intact, with a functional language system developing in the right hemisphere. To explain this early apparent equipotentiality of the two hemispheres for language, some have proposed that the language system is more bilateral during early development and becomes increasingly left-lateralized with age. We examined language lateralization using fMRI in two large developmental cohorts (total n = 273 children aged 4-16 years; n = 107 adults). Strong, adult-like LH lateralization (in response magnitude and activation volume) was evident by age 4, although other features of the LH language network showed protracted development, including the magnitude of language response and the strength of functional connectivity. Thus, although the RH can take over language function in some cases of early brain damage, this plasticity occurs in spite of adult-level LH bias present by age 4 years.
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