# Development of White Matter Language Tracts after Early Life Epilepsy and Stroke

> **NIH NIH F30** · GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY · 2023 · $34,994

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 Language acquisition at the neural level requires the maturation and engagement of speech comprehension
and speech production centers in the frontal and temporal lobes. The structural connections (white matter, WM)
between these centers must therefore play an important role in children’s ability to learn speech with rapid
proficiency and without explicit instruction. However, an important question is: does maturation of WM tracts
(through increased myelination or efficiency of connections) precede the acquisition of increasingly complex
components of language, setting up the developing brain to acquire language? Or does language acquisition
simply reinforce ongoing WM development in an activity-dependent manner? Little is known about the typical
developmental trends in WM maturation with respect to the known stages of language acquisition, despite the
importance of these connections in mature language functioning. This proposal aims first to clarify the
relationship between WM connectivity and language acquisition in typically developing infants by examining the
timing of WM changes with emerging language functions. Our hypothesis is that rapid maturation of WM tracts
enables infants to learn increasingly complex aspects of language through iterative feedback between frontal
and temporal language centers.
 The importance of WM is further reinforced when considering language deficits seen in pathologies that
damage WM connections as well as cortical speech centers. WM damage in adults can result in deficits ranging
from problems in naming and verbal fluency to aphasia, but infants have a remarkable ability to acquire language
normally when WM tracts are similarly affected, raising questions about WM plasticity in the developing brain.
The second aim of this proposal is to examine WM tracts after early-onset focal epilepsy (L-EPI) and perinatal
stroke (L-PSP) in the left hemisphere and to characterize how differences in their microstructure impact overall
language processing. Our hypothesis here is that disruption of typical WM maturation due to either an acute
stroke or chronic epilepsy differentially impairs tract organization such that chronic seizure activity disrupts typical
myelination of WM tracts in the language network in L-EPIs, impairing communication between cortical language
centers without leading to hemispheric reorganization. In contrast, early ablation of WM in L-PSPs disinhibits
right hemisphere tract development, allowing language acquisition and function to proceed normally.
 This proposal aims to characterize the brain-behavior relationships of key WM pathways in the language
network in typically developing infants and young children that are acquiring language (Aim 1) (NIDCD Voice,
Speech, and Language Program: Language, Understanding Normal Function); and aims to understand how
disruptions to these key WM tracts due to either L-EPI or L-PSP affect long-term WM organization and linguistic
function (Ai...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10692622
- **Project number:** 5F30DC020642-02
- **Recipient organization:** GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Madeline Marcelle
- **Activity code:** F30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2023
- **Award amount:** $34,994
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2022-09-01 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10692622

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10692622, Development of White Matter Language Tracts after Early Life Epilepsy and Stroke (5F30DC020642-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10692622. Licensed CC0.

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