Early maturation of the linguistic dorsal pathway in human infants

Human infants, unlike even closely related primates, exhibit a remarkable capacity for language learning. Yet how the underlying anatomical network matures remains largely unknown. The classical view is that of a largely immature brain comprising only a few islands of maturity in primary cortices. This view has favored a description of learning based on bottom-up algorithms and has tended to discard the role of frontal regions, which were assumed to be barely functional early on. Here, using an index based on the normalized T2-weighted magnetic resonance signal, we have quantified maturation within the linguistic network in fourteen 1- to 4-month-old infants. Our results show first that the ventral superior temporal sulcus (STS), and not the inferior frontal area, is the less mature perisylvian region. A significant difference of maturation in the STS favoring the right side is an early testimony of the distinctive left-right development of this structure observed during the whole life. Second, asymmetries of maturation in Broca's area were correlated with asymmetries in the posterior STS and in the parietal segment of the arcuate fasciculus, suggesting that an efficient frontotemporal dorsal pathway might provide infants with a phonological loop circuitry much earlier than expected.