Deviant neurophysiological asymmetry in children with language impairment

Deviant anatomical asymmetry of perisylvian cortex is argued tb be linked t o specific language impairment (SLI). However, no studies have examined whe ther deviant functional asymmetry underlies the processing of spoken langua ge. In the current study, brain-electrical activity was recorded from 31 sc alp sites to the function word 'the' embedded in auditorally presented stor ies and nonsense contexts. The SLI children showed reversed asymmetry at el ectrode sites over temporal cortex compared to control children in processi ng this word in all contexts. They also appear to lack some contribution fr om a deep neural generator in processing 'the' in the story. This investiga tion is the first to demonstrate a direct link between deviant neurophysiol ogical asymmetry and the processing of spoken language in children with SLI . NeuroReport 11:3715-3718 (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.