Over time, the idea that specific brain regions underlie language processing has evolved to suggest additional importance of the white matter tracts that connect those regions; however, limited research has been done investigating the functional specialization of white matter tracts in the brain. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between white matter tract integrity, as measured by fractional anisotropy, and linguistic and non-linguistic cognition as measured by various behavioral assessments. 28 individuals with aphasia were included in the study, each of whom completed DTI scanning and a battery of linguistic and non-linguistic tasks. Regarding linguistic cognition, results suggested the importance of integrity in the left AF, IFOF, ILF, SLF, and UF across language production and comprehension tasks, with particular implications for left AF, IFOF, and ILF for semantics, and the left AF and SLF, and bilateral IFOF for naming. Interestingly, the right AF showed a negative correlation with naming, suggesting adverse effects of compensatory recruitment of this tract. When looking at non-linguistic cognition, we found significance of left AF and right IFOF, ILF, and SLF integrity for behavioral performance, such that greater integrity in these tracts was associated with greater behavioral performance on non-linguistic tasks. In conclusion, these findings support the importance of left hemisphere dorsal and ventral tracts on linguistic cognition, and reliance on bilateral tracts for non-linguistic cognition.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/48900 |
| Date | 29 May 2024 |
| Creators | Killelea, Kateri |
| Contributors | Kiran, Swathi |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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