Organization of language networks in children: functional magnetic resonance imaging studies

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a relatively new neuroimaging procedure that has been used to study a wide variety of cognitive phenomena in adults, including attention, language, and memory. More recently, this technique has been successfully applied to pediatric populations as well. In particular, many investigators have employed fMRI as a tool to study language development in normal children. This paper reviews the current imaging research on the identification of cortex subserving components of language processing in young children. The literature suggests that fMRI can successfully identify regions of language cortex in children in much the same capacity as it can with adults, and that generally, adults and children show fundamental similarities in the patterns of activation. However, special considerations with pediatric imaging, paradigm design, and image analysis are also discussed.