Abstract
Disorders of speech and language arise out of a complex interaction of genetic, environmental, and neural factors. Little is understood about the neural bases of these disorders. Here we systematically reviewed neuroimaging findings in Speech disorders (SD) and Language disorders (LD) over the last five years (2008–2013; 10 articles). In participants with SD, structural and functional anomalies in the left supramarginal gyrus suggest a possible deficit in sensory feedback or integration. In LD, cortical and subcortical anomalies were reported in a widespread language network, with little consistency across studies except in the superior temporal gyri. In summary, both functional and structural anomalies are associated with LD and SD, including greater activity and volumes relative to controls. The variability in neuroimaging approach and heterogeneity within and across participant samples restricts our full understanding of the neurobiology of these conditions— reducing the potential for devising novel interventions targeted at the underlying pathology.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s40474-014-0019-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Developmental communication disorders are prevalent, affecting over 10 % of school aged children [1]
Effect sizes for group comparisons were available for two studies (Preston et al, [18], Table 1; Lee et al, [19], Table 2) and could not be calculated for the remainder as standard deviations were not provided
Age bands were relatively narrow (1–3 years) for studies on children with Speech disorders (SD), but wider in studies on children with Language disorders (LD), where three out of four studies reported on groups spanning nine years or greater
Summary
Developmental communication disorders are prevalent, affecting over 10 % of school aged children [1]. Whilst some symptoms may “resolve” or be compensated for into adolescence [2], there is increasing evidence for persistent life-long negative impacts of SD and LD on literacy, educational, employment, and psychosocial outcomes [3–5, 6, 7]. Both LD and SD have been defined as idiopathic (of unknown origin). The term idiopathic implies that the disorders cannot be explained by neurological or sensory deficits, nor are they associated with frank brain abnormalities on clinical MRI. Advances in neuroimaging methods over past decades have uncovered both functional and sub-macroscopic structural brain anomalies associated with these disorders
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