Normal fMRI brain activation patterns in children performing a verb generation task

Although much is known concerning brain-language relations in adults, littl e is known about how these functions might be represented during the develo pmental period. We report results from 17 normal children, ages 7-18 years, who have successfully completed a word fluency paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 Tesla. Regions of activation replicate thos e reported for adult subjects. However, a statistically significant associa tion between hemispheric lateralization of activation and age was found in the children. Specifically, although most subjects at all ages showed left hemisphere dominance for this task, the degree of lateralization increased with age. This study demonstrates that MRI can reveal developmental shifts in the pattern of brain activation associated with semantic language functi on. (C) 2001 Academic Press.