Functional brain plasticity during L1 training on complex sentences: Changes in gamma‐band oscillatory activity. Issue 12 (4th May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Peng; Knösche, Thomas R.; Chen, Luyao; Brauer, Jens; Friederici, Angela D.; Maess, Burkhard
• Is Part Of: Human brain mapping. Volume 42:Issue 12(2021)
• Page Start: 3858
• Page End: 3870
• Publication Date: 2021-05-04
• Subjects: brain plasticity -- first language (L1) training -- language network -- magnetoencephalography -- oscillatory brain activity -- speech processing; Brain mapping -- Periodicals; 611.81
• DOI: 10.1002/hbm.25470
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1065-9471

Abstract

Abstract: The adult human brain remains plastic even after puberty. However, whether first language (L1) training in adults can alter the language network is yet largely unknown. Thus, we conducted a longitudinal training experiment on syntactically complex German sentence comprehension. Sentence complexity was varied by the depth of the center embedded relative clauses (i.e., single or double embedded). Comprehension was tested after each sentence with a question on the thematic role assignment. Thirty adult, native German speakers were recruited for 4 days of training. Magnetoencephalography (MEG) data were recorded and subjected to spectral power analysis covering the classical frequency bands (i.e., theta, alpha, beta, low gamma, and gamma). Normalized spectral power, time‐locked to the final closure of the relative clause, was subjected to a two‐factor analysis ("sentence complexity" and "training days"). Results showed that for the more complex sentences, the interaction of sentence complexity and training days was observed in Brodmann area 44 (BA 44) as a decrease of gamma power with training. Moreover, in the gamma band (55–95 Hz) functional connectivity between BA 44 and other brain regions such as the inferior frontal sulcus and the inferior parietal cortex were correlated with behavioral performance increase due to training. These results show that even for native speakers, complex L1 sentence training improves language performance and alters neural activities of the left hemispheric language network. Training strengthens the use of the dorsal processing stream with working‐memory‐related brain regions for syntactically complex sentences, thereby demonstrating the brain's functional plasticity for L1 training. Abstract : We demonstrate brain plasiticity to language training with a longitudinal auditory experiment during which native German speakers were trained to understand syntactically complex sentences. Based on MEG recordings, we identified a gamma power decrease in the left BA 44 for the more complex syntactic structures but not for the simpler ones. Over the training days, a correlation was observed between performance and gamma‐ based connectivity for pairwise connections from and to BA 44.