King, Camacho, Montez, Humphreys, Gotlib
The
quantity and quality of the language input that infants receive from their
caregivers affects their future language abilities; however, it is unclear
how variation in this input relates to preverbal brain circuitry. The current
study investigated the relation between naturalistic language input and the
functional connectivity (FC) of language networks in human infancy using
resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rsfMRI). We recorded the
naturalistic language environments of five- to eight-month-old male and
female infants using the Linguistic ENvironment Analysis (LENA) system and
measured the quantity and consistency of their exposure to adult words (AWs)
and adult–infant conversational turns (CTs). Infants completed an rsfMRI scan
during natural sleep, and we examined FC among regions of interest (ROIs)
previously implicated in language comprehension, including the auditory
cortex, the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and the bilateral superior
temporal gyrus (STG). Consistent with theory of the ontogeny of the cortical
language network (Skeide and Friederici, 2016), we identified two subnetworks
posited to have distinct developmental trajectories: a posterior temporal
network involving connections of the auditory cortex and bilateral STG and a
frontotemporal network involving connections of the left IFG. Independent of
socioeconomic status (SES), the quantity of CTs was uniquely associated with
FC of these networks. Infants who engaged in a larger number of CTs in daily
life had lower connectivity in the posterior temporal language network. These
results provide evidence for the role of vocal interactions with caregivers,
compared with overheard adult speech, in the function of language networks in
infancy.