Brain responses to repetition-based rule-learning do not exhibit sex differences: an aggregated analysis of infant fNIRS studies.

Journal

Scientific reports

ISSN: 2045-2322

Titre abrégé: Sci Rep

Pays: England

ID NLM: 101563288

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
31 Jan 2024

Historique:

received: 06 06 2023

accepted: 27 01 2024

medline: 1 2 2024

pubmed: 1 2 2024

entrez: 31 1 2024

Statut: epublish

Résumé

Studies have repeatedly shown sex differences in some areas of language development, typically with an advantage for female over male children. However, the tested samples are typically small and the effects do not always replicate. Here, we used a meta-analytic approach to address this issue in a larger sample, combining seven fNIRS studies on the neural correlates of repetition- and non-repetition-based rule learning in newborns and 6-month-old infants. The ability to extract structural regularities from the speech input is fundamental for language development, it is therefore highly relevant to understand whether this ability shows sex differences. The meta-analysis tested the effect of Sex, as well as of other moderators on infants' hemodynamic responses to repetition-based (e.g. ABB: "mubaba") and non-repetition-based (e.g. ABC: "mubage") sequences in both anatomically and functionally defined regions of interests. Our analyses did not reveal any sex differences at birth or at 6 months, suggesting that the ability to encode these regularities is robust across sexes. Interestingly, the meta-analysis revealed other moderator effects. Thus in newborns, we found a greater involvement of the bilateral temporal areas compared to the frontal areas for both repetition and non-repetition sequences. Further, non-repetition sequences elicited greater responses in 6-month-olds than in newborns, especially in the bilateral frontal areas. When analyzing functional clusters of HbR timetraces, we found that a larger right-left asymmetry for newborn boys in brain responses compared to girls, which may be interpreted in terms of a larger right-left asymmetry in cerebral blood flow in boys than in girls early in life. We conclude that extracting repetition-based regularities from speech is a robust ability with a well-defined neural substrate present from birth and it does not exhibit sex differences.

Identifiants

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-53092-2 PMID: 38297068

pubmed: 38297068

doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-53092-2

pii: 10.1038/s41598-024-53092-2

doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Sous-ensembles de citation

Pagination

2611

Subventions

Organisme : European Research Council

ID : 773202

Pays : International

Informations de copyright

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