Diffusion Neuroimaging of Speech Acquisition in Infants

Liu, F.; Liu, J.; Gu, J.; Wang, Y.; Cai, X.; Wang, Z.; Wu, H.; Feng, J.; Zhang, H.; Shen, D.

doi:10.1101/2025.05.23.655876

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bioRxiv · 10.1101/2025.05.23.655876

Diffusion Neuroimaging of Speech Acquisition in Infants

Liu, F.·Liu, J.·Gu, J.·Wang, Y.·Cai, X.·Wang, Z.·Wu, H.·Feng, J.·Zhang, H.·Shen, D.

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Abstract

How multisystem white-matter maturation supports early speech acquisition in infancy remains unclear. Using longitudinal diffusion MRI from the Baby Con-nectome Project, we quantified neurite density maturation from birth to 24 months across 33 white-matter tracts spanning motor, auditory, visual, ventral-language, and dorsal-language systems. Maturation was coordinated across systems rather than confined to canonical language pathways: dorsal-language association tracts began relatively immature near birth but showed steep postnatal growth, pro-gressively rebalancing with motor and sensory systems. Tract-behavior coupling was likewise distributed across developmental domains, with broadly positive age-adjusted associations for motor outcomes, a sparser, partly motor-like profile for gesture-related phrase comprehension, and predominantly negative associa-tions for lexical speech-related outcomes. Exploratory follow-up analyses further suggested motor and social precursor capacities that may help mediate these in-direct developmental routes from structural maturation to later speech-related outcomes. These findings support a multisystem developmental account in which early speech acquisition emerges not from an isolated language pathway, but from coordinated maturation across multiple systems and the precursor skills that link them.

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Liu, F., Liu, J., Gu, J., Wang, Y., Cai, X., Wang, Z., Wu, H., Feng, J., Zhang, H., Shen, D.. 2025-05-25. Diffusion Neuroimaging of Speech Acquisition in Infants. https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.05.23.655876

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