MRI brain scans of young children show that conversations with adults can create stronger connections between two developing brain regions critical for language skills, according to a study published online August 13 in the Journal of Neuroscience.
In their neuroimaging study, the researchers analyzed 40 4- to 6-year-old children and their parents, who were from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. They found that greater conversational turn-taking -- measured over a weekend with an in-home audio recording device -- was related to stronger connections between Wernicke's area and Broca's area in the brain. Both regions are key to the comprehension and production of speech.
Notably, this finding was independent of parental income and education, suggesting that talking with children from an early age could promote their language skills regardless of their socioeconomic status, according to the researchers.
Illuminated areas of MR images illustrate white-matter connections between two key language regions in the brain and the effect adult conversation can have on children. Although both children are the same age, the same gender, and from the same socioeconomic background, they differ in the number of conversational turns experienced, which relates to the strength of white-matter connectivity in these pathways. Image courtesy of Romeo et al, Journal of Neuroscience.
