The Role of Interhemisphere Interactions in Children Aged 5–6 Years and Adults in Supporting Verbal-Mnestic Activity Associated with the Formation and Analysis of Verbal Utterances

Abstract

This report describes studies of the establishment of the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying mental speech activity associated with the synthesis of speech units from sets of more elementary units in children aged 5‐6 years. Comparison of the results with data on analogous activity in adults, as well as in children and adults during verbal activity directed to recognizing phonemes in words and grammatical and semantic errors in sentences, showed that support of the speech production processes underlying the mental formation of words and sentences, as well as verbal activity requiring recognition and a critical approach to speech perception, requires coordinated simultaneous activity of the left and right hemispheres. In children and especially in adults, this is apparent as increases in interhemisphere interactions, mainly in the temporal lobes of the two hemispheres, the inferior frontal areas, and the TPO zone (the zone at which the temporal, parietal, and occipital areas of the cortex overlap). These data indicate that the neurophysiological mechanisms originating verbal constructs in preschool children are more mature than the processes accompanying the analytical approach to the grammatical, semantic, and phonetic characteristics of perceived speech.