A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of language function in international adoptees

To test the hypothesis that international adoption of Chinese and Eastern European girls after 9 months of age results in long-term changes in the neural circuitry supporting monolingual English in later childhood.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to test this hypothesis by comparison with a control group of American-born English speakers (n = 13). Girls now aged 6-10 years adopted from China (n = 13) and Eastern Europe (n = 12) by English-speaking families were recruited through a pediatric hospital-based international adoption center after spending more than 6 months in an orphanage or other institution, a measure of early environmental deprivation. Functional magnetic resonance imaging scans were performed on a 3 Tesla MRI scanner using a verb generation language fluency task. Composite activation maps were computed for each group using a general linear model with random effects analysis.

Chinese born adoptees demonstrate atypical lateralization of language function with an apparent shift of temporal-parietal and frontal areas of brain activity toward the right hemisphere. Eastern European adoptees exhibited a rightward shift relative to controls in both frontal and temporal-parietal brain regions.

Significant differences in lateralization between the Chinese and American-born groups in temporal-parietal language areas highlight the possible impact of early tonal Asian language exposure on neural circuitry. Findings suggest that exposure to an Asian language during infancy can leave a long-term imprint on the neural circuitry supporting English language development.