Biology subjects

Kepinska, O.

Publications and source records attributed to Kepinska, O..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2024

Intergenerational transmission of the structure of the auditory cortex and reading skills

High-level cognitive skill development relies on genetic and environmental factors, tied to brain structure and function. Inter-individual variability in language and music skills has been repeatedly associated with the structure of the auditory cortex: the shape, size and asymmetry of the transverse temporal gyrus (TTG) or gyri (TTGs). TTG is highly variable in shape and size, some individuals having one single gyrus (also referred to as Heschls gyrus, HG) while others presenting duplications (with a common stem or fully separated) or higher-order multiplications of TTG. Both genetic and environmental influences on childrens cognition, behavior, and brain can to some to degree be traced back to familial and parental factors. In the current study, using a unique MRI dataset of parents and children (135 individuals from 37 families), we ask whether the anatomy of the auditory cortex is related to reading skills, and whether there are intergenerational effects on TTG(s) anatomy. For this, we performed detailed, automatic segmentations of HG and of additional TTG(s), when present, extracting volume, surface area, thickness and shape of the gyri. We tested for relationships between these and reading skill, and assessed their degree of familial similarity and intergenerational transmission effects. We found that volume and area of all identified left TTG(s) combined was positively related to reading scores, both in children and adults. With respect to intergenerational similarities in the structure of the auditory cortex, we identified structural brain similarities for mother-child pairs of the 1st TTG (HG) (in terms of volume, area and thickness for the right HG, and shape for the left HG) and of the lateralization of all TTG(s) surface area for father-child pairs. Both the HG and TTG-lateralization findings were significantly more likely for parent-child dyads than for unrelated adult-child pairs. Furthermore, we established characteristics of parents TTG that are related to better reading abilities in children: fathers small left HG, and a small ratio of HG to planum temporale. Our results suggest intergenerational transmission of specific structural features of the auditory cortex (not directly linked to childrens reading outcomes); these may arise from genetics and/or from shared environment.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

NEBULA101: an open dataset for the study of language aptitude in behaviour, brain structure and function

This paper introduces the "NEBULA101 - Neuro-behavioural Understanding of Language Aptitude" dataset, which comprises behavioural and brain imaging data from 101 healthy adults to examine individual differences in language and cognition. Human language, a multifaceted behaviour, varies significantly among individuals, at different processing levels. Recent advances in cognitive science have embraced an integrated approach, combining behavioural and brain studies to explore these differences comprehensively. The NEBULA101 dataset offers brain structural, diffusion-weighted, task-based and resting-state MRI data, alongside extensive linguistic and non-linguistic behavioural measures to explore the complex interaction of language and cognition in a highly multilingual sample. By sharing this multimodal dataset, we hope to promote research on the neuroscience of language, cognition and multilingualism, enabling the field to deepen its understanding of the multivariate panorama of individual differences and ultimately contributing to open science.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2023

Auditory cortex anatomy reflects multilingual phonological experience

This study explores the relationship between the anatomy of the auditory cortex and multilingual experience, shedding light on the complex mechanisms of auditory processing in humans. Integrating previous research on auditory information processing and the impact of bi- and multilingualism on brain structure, we investigate how the morphology of auditory brain regions reflects individuals language experience and, more specifically, their phonological repertoire. Leveraging two distinct samples comprising over 200 participants, each exposed to between 1 and 7 languages encompassing 36 different languages, we explore whether the morphological variability of auditory brain regions reflects individual language experience, specifically focusing on the phonological repertoire. Additionally, we examine the potential influence of typological distances between languages spoken by multilingual individuals on the neural signatures of multilingualism within the auditory cortex. Our findings revealed a relationship between the average thickness of the left and right second transverse temporal gyrus (TTG) and participants language experience. Model comparisons demonstrated that the inclusion of phoneme-level information in the language experience index accounted for the greatest variance in average TTG thickness (bilaterally). The direction of this effect was negative, indicating that a more extensive and more phonologically diverse language experience was associated with thinner cortices in the second TTG. Across two independent datasets, we provide robust evidence linking the degree of language experience and typological distance between languages to cortical thickness in early auditory brain regions. We propose that this phenomenon may reflect experience-driven pruning and neural efficiency, warranting further investigation through longitudinal studies of language acquisition. Moreover, our findings support the notion that experiences with typologically similar languages differ from those with typologically distant languages, offering valuable insights into the intricate relationship between language diversity and brain structure. Our findings also indicate that early auditory regions seem to represent phoneme-level cross-linguistic information, contrary to the most established models of language processing in the brain, which suggest that phonological processing happens in more lateral posterior STG and STS.

neuroscience↗