Search Abstracts | Symposia | Slide Sessions | Poster Sessions
Developmental differences in brain activation and functional network connectivity for Chinese handwriting: an fMRI study of children and young adults
Poster Session B, Friday, October 25, 10:00 - 11:30 am, Great Hall 3 and 4
Yang Yang1,2, Huan Ren1,2, Junjun Li1,2, Hongyan Bi1,2; 1Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Center for Brain Science and Learning Difficulties, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China, 2Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Introduction: Handwriting is a unique human skill that plays a crucial role in communication and academic achievement. The development of skilled handwriting requires a prolonged period to mature. Although various brain regions have been identified as being involved in handwriting, how the specific brain systems for handwriting are established remains largely unexplored, especially in logographic writing systems. This study addresses this question by investigating the neurodevelopment of handwriting in Chinese, a representative logographic writing system. Methods: Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined regional brain activation and network-based functional connectivity during copying tasks of Chinese characters in 44 adults (aged 19–30 years) and 80 children (aged 9–13 years). Results: The results revealed that adults, compared to children, exhibited stronger activation in the right lingual gyrus, inferior/middle occipital gyrus, and left inferior parietal lobe, suggesting a functional specification of regional activation in visual and motor cortices associated with handwriting development. Furthermore, functional network analysis demonstrated that children, compared to adults, exhibited stronger global and local efficiency in a functional network, involving intranetwork connectivity within the sensorimotor network (SMN), visual network (VN), and default mode network (DMN), as well as internetwork connectivity between the VN and DMN. The increased network-based connectivity in adults may reflect the robustness and stability of large-scale functional networks supporting skilled handwriting. Alternatively, the differential activation and functional connectivity between children and adults might reflect a decline in brain functional efficiency due to reduced handwriting practice in adulthood. Conclusion: This study is the first to identify changes in regional activation and functional network connectivity associated with the development of handwriting in a logographic writing system. These findings advance our understanding of the neurodevelopment involved in skilled cognitive and motor functions. Keywords: Handwriting, Chinese, fMRI, regional activation, functional network connectivity
Topic Areas: Writing and Spelling, Language Development/Acquisition