The evolution of neuroimaging research and developmental language disorders

Postmortem studies provided the impetus to look for functionally-relevant c ortical asymmetries in individuals with developmental language disorders, b ut technological advances have made possible safe, in vivo studies of corti cal development in children, While the primary focus has been on developmen tal reading disorders (DRD), studies of individuals with specific language impairment (SLI) have also been addressed. A review of the relevant literat ure suggests a complicated relationship between cortical morphometry and la nguage development, that is modified by multiple neurobiological factors, i ncluding handedness, sex, and IQ, The degree to which environmental influen ces play a role also has important implications for intervention.