Signatures of brain plasticity supporting language recovery after perinatal arterial ischemic stroke

• Published in: Brain and language Vol. 212; p. 104880
• Main Authors: François, Clément, Garcia-Alix, Alfredo, Bosch, Laura, Rodriguez-Fornells, Antoni
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.01.2021; Academic Press; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aphasia; Brain; Brain Plasticity; Cognitive science; Cognitive Sciences; Diffusion tensor imaging; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Human health and pathology; Language; Language acquisition; Language recovery; Life Sciences; Linguistics; Neurons and Cognition; Neuroscience; Pediatrics; Perinatal arterial ischemic stroke; Plasticity; Psychology; Recovery (Medical); Stroke; Brain Plasticity; Perinatal arterial ischemic stroke; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Language recovery; Diffusion tensor imaging
• ISSN: 0093-934X; 1090-2155
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bandl.2020.104880

•Perinatal arterial ischemic stroke does not always lead to language impairment.•After an early lesion, the language network shows a remarkable plastic power during development.•The bilateral organization of the language network allows for functional and structural brain reorganization after perinatal stroke•Re-organization of temporal and frontal language areas towards the right hemisphere may be the most frequent mechanism triggering functional recovery Brain imaging methods such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) have already been used to decipher the functional and structural brain changes occurring during normal language development. However, little is known about the differentiation of the language network after an early lesion. While in adults, stroke over the left hemisphere generally induces post-stroke aphasia, it is not always the case when a stroke occurs in the perinatal period, thus revealing a remarkable plastic power of the language network during early development. In particular, the role of perilesional tissues, as opposed to undamaged brain areas in the functional recovery of language functions after an early insult, remains unclear. In this review article, we provide an overview of the extant literature using functional and structural neuroimaging data revealing the signatures of brain plasticity underlying near-normal language development.