Regional cerebral perfusion abnormalities in developmental language disorder

Objective A voxel based investigation of cerebral blood flow was conducted to identify brain functional differences during resting state between children with developmental language disorder (DLD) and normal controls. Method Using DSM–IV criteria, we selected 21 children with DLD.All children were examined by technetium–99m–HMPAO Brain SPECT. Using SPM analyses, we compared the SPECT images of children with DLD and those of 17 control subjects on a voxel by voxel basis using ANCOVA covarying for age. Results Reduced cerebral blood flow in the right putamen,the right inferior parietal cortex, and the left globus pallidus were found in children with DLD versus the controls. However, no area of increased cerebral blood flow was observed in children with DLD compared to the controls. Conclusion Though results should be interpreted cautiously, this study confirms the presence of functional defects in the basal ganglia and the inferior parietal lobe during the resting state of the brains of children with DLD. It also gives further evidence for functional deficits in basal ganglia as an important factor in the etiology of DLD.