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Limited evidence has shown that practising musical activities in aging, such as choral singing, could lessen age-related speech perception in noise (SPiN) difficulties. However, the robustness and underlying mechanism of action of this phenomenon remain unclear. In this study, we used surface-based morphometry combined with a moderated mediation analytic approach to examine whether singing-related plasticity in auditory and dorsal speech stream regions can mitigate age-related SPiN difficulties. 36 choral singers and 36 non-singers aged 20–87 years underwent cognitive, auditory, and SPiN assessments. Our results provide important new insights into experience-dependent plasticity by revealing that, under certain conditions of practice, amateur choral singing is associated with age-dependent structural plasticity within auditory and dorsal speech regions, which is associated with better SPiN performance in aging. Specifically, the conditions of practice that were beneficial for SPiN included frequent weekly practice at home, several hours of weekly group singing practice, singing in multiple languages, and having received formal singing training. These results suggest that the effect of amateur choral singing on SPiN is related to a dual mechanism involving auditory processing and auditory-motor integration and may be dose dependent, with more intense singing associated with greater benefit. Our results thus reveal that the relationship between musical practice and SPiN is complex, and underscore the importance of considering musical practice behaviours in understanding the effects of musical activities on the brain-behaviour relationship.

International audience; This article reports on vowel clarity metrics based on spectrotemporal modulations of speech signals. Motivated by previous findings on the relevance of modulation-based metrics for speech intelligibility assessment and pathology classification, the current study used factor analysis to identify regions within a bi-dimensional modulation space, the magnitude power spectrum, as in Elliott and Theunissen [(2009). PLoS Comput. Biol. 5(3), e1000302] by relating them to a set of conventional acoustic metrics of vowel space area and vowel distinctiveness. Two indices based on the energy ratio between high and low modulation rates across temporal and spectral dimensions of the modulation space emerged from the analyses. These indices served as input for measurements of central tendency and classification analyses that aimed to identify vowel-related speech impairments in French native speakers with head and neck cancer (HNC) and Parkinson dysarthria (PD). Following the analysis, vowel-related speech impairment was identified in HNC speakers, but not in PD. These results were consistent with findings based on subjective evaluations of speech intelligibility. The findings reported are consistent with previous studies indicating that impaired speech is associated with attenuation in energy in higher spectrotemporal modulation bands.

Despite decades of research, the nature of the involvement of the motor system in action language processing is still controversial, and little is known about how processing action language relates to observing, imaging and executing motor actions. This study combines a systematic review of the literature, an ALE meta-analysis and a region-of-interest (ROI) meta-analysis to provide the first complete (qualitative and quantitative) account of the motor-related functional network involved in action language processing in comparison to activation reported during motor observation, motor imagery and motor execution. The review of the literature revealed that the methodology of action language studies differed considerably from the methodology of other motor-related processes which may have contributed to blurring the interpretations over the years. The ALE and ROI meta-analyses showed that the functional network of action language was more similar to observation than imagery and finally execution, following a motor gradation. Overall, our results point towards a more cognitive, as opposed to purely motoric, involvement of the motor system during action language processing.

It has been proposed that the maintenance of phonological information in verbal working memory (vWM) is carried by a domain-specific short-term storage center-the phonological loop-which is composed of a phonological store and an articulatory rehearsal system. Several brain regions including the left posterior inferior frontal gyrus (pIFG) and anterior supramarginal gyri (aSMG) are thought to support these processes. However, recent behavioral evidence suggests that verbal and non-verbal auditory information may be processed as part of a unique domain general short-term storage center instead of through specialized subsystems such as the phonological loop. In the current study, we used a single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)-delayed priming paradigm with speech (syllables) and acoustically complex non-speech sounds (bird songs) to examine whether the pIFG and aSMG are involved in the processing of verbal information or, alternatively, in the processing of any complex auditory information. Our results demonstrate that TMS delivered to both regions had an effect on performance for speech and non-speech stimuli, but the nature of the effect was different. That is, priming was reduced for the speech sounds because TMS facilitated the detection of different but not identical stimuli, and accuracy was decreased for non-speech sounds. Since TMS interfered with both speech and non-speech sounds, these findings support the existence of an auditory short-term storage center located within the dorsal auditory stream.

Voice disorders are frequent among occupational voice users such as teachers. Although these disorders can have serious personal and professional consequences, they are not often recognized as occupational diseases and little attention is paid to their prevention. This study aimed to provide a portrait of the self-reported vocal health and vocal health knowledge of occupational voice users in Quebec, Canada, and to identify risk factors associated with voice disorder symptoms. We conducted an online survey targeting occupational voice users in the province of Quebec, Canada, with a focus on those involved in teaching or training. The final sample, after excluding incomplete surveys, included 808 respondents (665 women, M = 41.5 ± 10.4 years old). The survey responses were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results indicated that 9.8% of the respondents had a history of a diagnosed voice disorder and 68.8% of the respondents experienced at least one voice symptom on a regular basis. Ordinal logistic regressions revealed that several personal and environmental factors are associated with an increased risk of developing voice disorders symptoms: being a woman, suffering from a breathing disorder, allergies, acid reflux and/or hearing impairment, having less work experience, working with elementary school children and/or with continuous or speech noise in the background. Most of the respondents (94.6%) had never received information regarding voice disorders during their academic training and less than half of them (47.7%) knew which professionals can treat voice disorders. These findings highlight the need for formal vocal health education among both occupational voice users and their employers to improve prevention and treatment for voice disorders in an at-risk population.

Background Pain assessment and pain care are influenced by the characteristics of both the patient and the caregiver. Some studies suggest that the pain of older persons and of females may be underestimated to a greater extent than the pain of younger and male individuals. Aims This study investigated the effect of age and sex on prosocial behavior and pain evaluation. Methods 40 young (18-30 y/o; 20 women) and 40 older adults (55-82 y/o; 20 women) acted as healthcare professionals rating the pain and offering help to patients of both age groups. Trait empathy and social desirability were measured with questionnaires. Results Linear mixed models showed that older and male patients were offered more help and were perceived as being in more intense pain than younger and female patients. Conclusion The characteristics of the patients seem to have a greater impact on prosocial behavior and pain assessment compared to those of the observers, which bears significant implications for the treatment of pain in clinical contexts.

This paper introduces an innovative functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) protocol to study real verbal interactions while limiting the impact of speech-related movement artefacts. This protocol is based on a sparse sampling acquisition technique and allowed participants to complete a referential communication task with a real interaction partner. During verbal interactions, speakers adjust their verbal productions depending on their interlocutors’ knowledge of the referents being mentioned. These adjustments have been linked to theory of mind (ToM), the ability to infer other’s mental states. We thus sought to determine if the brain regions supporting ToM would also be activated during a referential communication task in which participants have to present movie characters that vary in their likelihood of being known by their interlocutor. This pilot study establishes that the sparse sampling strategy is a viable option to study the neural correlates of referential communication while minimizing movement artefacts. In addition, the brain regions supporting ToM were recruited during the task, though specifically for the conditions where participants could adjust their verbal productions to the interlocutor’s likely knowledge of the referent. This study therefore demonstrates the feasibility and relevance of a sparse-sampling approach to study verbal interactions with fMRI, including referential communication.

Introduction: Lymphedema is a chronic and debilitating condition. This study aims to assess the efficacy and safety of lymphaticovenous anastomosis (LVA) and vascularized lymph node transfers (VLNT) for the treatment of patients suffering from lymphedema, mainly by comparing pre- and postoperative daily compression use, limb volumes, and occurrence of cellulitis. Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of patients who were treated by a single surgeon for lymphedema with LVA and/or VLNT between March 2018 and February 2020. Eighteen limbs met the inclusion criteria. The severity of lymphatic dysfunction was assessed by indocyanine green lymphangiography. Patients with patent vessels were offered LVA, whereas those without were offered VLNT. Pre- and postoperative circumferential limb measurements, use of compression garments, and postoperative complications were compared. Results: Nine limbs underwent LVA, 8 underwent VLNT, and one both. The minimum follow-up was 12 months. Postoperatively, all but 3 patients (83%) were able to cease daily compression. When considering excess limb volumes, the average reduction was 58%. This reduction was achieved despite compression weaning. Forty-four percent of patients (8) reported episodes of recurrent cellulitis preoperatively, while postoperatively, only 3 of those patients (17%) experienced cellulitis, which was statistically significant ( P = .018). No surgical complications occurred. Conclusions: Patients with lymphedema can benefit from LVA and VLNT surgery. An important effect of surgery is decreased dependence on daily compression garments to maintain a stable and reasonable limb volume. The reduction of limb circumference after 1 year was similar to LVA and VLNT. Episodes of cellulitis were significantly lower after the intervention.

The ability to perceive speech in noise (SPiN) declines with age. Although the etiology of SPiN decline is not well understood, accumulating evidence suggests a role for the dorsal speech stream. While age‐related decline within the dorsal speech stream would negatively affect SPiN performance, experience‐induced neuroplastic changes within the dorsal speech stream could positively affect SPiN performance. Here, we investigated the relationship between SPiN performance and the structure of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), which forms the white matter scaffolding of the dorsal speech stream, in aging singers and non‐singers. Forty‐three non‐singers and 41 singers aged 20 to 87 years old completed a hearing evaluation and a magnetic resonance imaging session that included High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging. The groups were matched for sex, age, education, handedness, cognitive level, and musical instrument experience. A subgroup of participants completed syllable discrimination in the noise task. The AF was divided into 10 segments to explore potential local specializations for SPiN. The results show that, in carefully matched groups of singers and non‐singers (a) myelin and/or axonal membrane deterioration within the bilateral frontotemporal AF segments are associated with SPiN difficulties in aging singers and non‐singers; (b) the structure of the AF is different in singers and non‐singers; (c) these differences are not associated with a benefit on SPiN performance for singers. This study clarifies the etiology of SPiN difficulties by supporting the hypothesis for the role of aging of the dorsal speech stream., The arcuate fasciculus (AF) was divided into ten segments to explore potential local specializations for speech perception in noise (SPiN) in young and older singers and non‐singers. Our results show that the structure of the AF differs in young and older adults, especially in frontotemporal segments, and that these differences affect SPiN performance. The structure of the AF was also different in singers and non‐singers, but these differences were not associated with a better SPiN performance.

Normal aging is associated with speech perception in noise (SPiN) difficulties. The objective of this study was to determine if SPiN performance can be enhanced by intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) in young and older adults. Method We developed a sub-lexical SPiN test to evaluate the contribution of age, hearing, and cognition to SPiN performance in young and older adults. iTBS was applied to the left posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) and the left ventral premotor cortex (PMv) to examine its impact on SPiN performance. Results Aging was associated with reduced SPiN accuracy. TMS-induced performance gain was greater after stimulation of the PMv compared to the pSTS. Participants with lower scores in the baseline condition improved the most. Discussion SPiN difficulties can be reduced by enhancing activity within the left speech-processing network in adults. This study paves the way for the development of TMS-based interventions to reduce SPiN difficulties in adults.

International audience; The ability to process speech evolves over the course of the lifespan. Understanding speech at low acoustic intensity and in the presence of background noise becomes harder, and the ability for older adults to benefit from audiovisual speech also appears to decline. These difficulties can have important consequences on quality of life. Yet, a consensus on the cause of these difficulties is still lacking. The objective of this study was to examine the processing of speech in young and older adults under different modalities (i.e. auditory [A], visual [V], audiovisual [AV]) and in the presence of different visual prediction cues (i.e., no predictive cue (control), temporal predictive cue, phonetic predictive cue, and combined temporal and phonetic predictive cues). We focused on recognition accuracy and four auditory evoked potential (AEP) components: P1–N1–P2 and N2. Thirty-four right-handed French-speaking adults were recruited, including 17 younger adults (28 ± 2 years; 20–42 years) and 17 older adults (67 ± 3.77 years; 60–73 years). Participants completed a forced-choice speech identification task. The main findings of the study are: (1) The faciliatory effect of visual information was reduced, but present, in older compared to younger adults, (2) visual predictive cues facilitated speech recognition in younger and older adults alike, (3) age differences in AEPs were localized to later components (P2 and N2), suggesting that aging predominantly affects higher-order cortical processes related to speech processing rather than lower-level auditory processes. (4) Specifically, AV facilitation on P2 amplitude was lower in older adults, there was a reduced effect of the temporal predictive cue on N2 amplitude for older compared to younger adults, and P2 and N2 latencies were longer for older adults. Finally (5) behavioural performance was associated with P2 amplitude in older adults. Our results indicate that aging affects speech processing at multiple levels, including audiovisual integration (P2) and auditory attentional processes (N2). These findings have important implications for understanding barriers to communication in older ages, as well as for the development of compensation strategies for those with speech processing difficulties.

Background: Melodic Intonation Therapy, a music-based intervention for the recovery of oral language production in aphasia, has been shown to be particularly effective in patients with Broca’s apha...

Breast reconstructive services are medically necessary, time-sensitive procedures with meaningful health-related quality of life benefits for breast cancer survivors. The COVID-19 global pandemic has resulted in unprecedented restrictions in surgical access, including access to breast reconstructive services. A national approach is needed to guide the strategic use of resources during times of fluctuating restrictions on surgical access due to COVID-19 demands on hospital capacity.A national team of experts were convened for critical review of healthcare needs and development of recommendations and strategies for patients seeking breast reconstruction during the pandemic. Following critical review of literature, expert discussion by teleconference meetings, and evidenced-based consensus, best practice recommendations were developed to guide national provision of breast reconstructive services.Recommendations include strategic use of multidisciplinary teams for patient selection and triage with centralized coordinated use of alternate treatment plans during times of resource restrictions. With shared decision-making, patient-centered shifting and consolidation of resources facilitate efficient allocation. Targeted application of perioperative management strategies and surgical treatment plans maximize the provision of breast reconstructive services.A unified national approach to strategically reorganize healthcare delivery is feasible to uphold standards of patient-centered care for patients interested in breast reconstruction.

The literature reports that the supplementary motor area (SMA) and pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) are involved in motor planning and execution, and in motor-related cognitive functions such as motor imagery. However, their specific role in action language processing remains unclear. In the present study, we investigated the impact of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over SMA and pre-SMA during an action semantic analogy task (SAT) in relation with fine motor skills (i.e., manual dexterity) and motor imagery abilities in healthy non-expert adults. The impact of rTMS over SMA (but not pre-SMA) on reaction times (RT) during SAT was correlated with manual dexterity. Specifically, results show that rTMS over SMA modulated RT for those with lower dexterity skills. Our results therefore demonstrate a causal involvement of SMA in action language processing, as well as the existence of inter-individual differences in this involvement. We discuss these findings in light of neurolinguistic theories of language processing.

Healthy aging is associated with a decline in cognitive, executive, and motor processes that are concomitant with changes in brain activation patterns, particularly at high complexity levels. While speech production relies on all these processes, and is known to decline with age, the mechanisms that underlie these changes remain poorly understood, despite the importance of communication on everyday life. In this cross-sectional group study, we investigated age differences in the neuromotor control of speech production by combining behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data. Twenty-seven healthy adults underwent fMRI while performing a speech production task consisting in the articulation of nonwords of different sequential and motor complexity. Results demonstrate strong age differences in movement time (MT), with longer and more variable MT in older adults. The fMRI results revealed extensive age differences in the relationship between BOLD signal and MT, within and outside the sensorimotor system. Moreover, age differences were also found in relation to sequential complexity within the motor and attentional systems, reflecting both compensatory and de-differentiation mechanisms. At very high complexity level (high motor complexity and high sequence complexity), age differences were found in both MT data and BOLD response, which increased in several sensorimotor and executive control areas. Together, these results suggest that aging of motor and executive control mechanisms may contribute to age differences in speech production. These findings highlight the importance of studying functionally relevant behavior such as speech to understand the mechanisms of human brain aging. Hum Brain Mapp 38:2751-2771, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

An impressive number of theoretical proposals and neurobiological studies argue that perceptual processing is not strictly feedforward but rather operates through an interplay between bottom-up sensory and top-down predictive mechanisms. The present EEG study aimed to further determine how prior knowledge on auditory syllables may impact speech perception. Prior knowledge was manipulated by presenting the participants with visual information indicative of the syllable onset (when), its phonetic content (what) and/or its articulatory features (how). While when and what predictions consisted of unnatural visual cues (i.e., a visual timeline and a visuo-orthographic cue), how prediction consisted of the visual movements of a speaker. During auditory speech perception, when and what predictions both attenuated the amplitude of N1/P2 auditory evoked potentials. Regarding how prediction, not only an amplitude decrease but also a latency facilitation of N1/P2 auditory evoked potentials were observed during audiovisual compared to unimodal speech perception. However, when and what predictability effects were then reduced or abolished, with only what prediction reducing P2 amplitude but increasing latency. Altogether, these results demonstrate the influence of when, what and how visually induced predictions at an early stage on cortical auditory speech processing. Crucially, they indicate a preponderant predictive role of the speaker's articulatory gestures during audiovisual speech perception, likely driven by attentional load and focus.

Global warming of the world's oceans is driving reef‐building corals towards their upper thermal limit, inducing bleaching, nutrient starvation and mortality. In addition, corals are predicted to experience large fluctuations in seawater nutrient concentrations, following water column stratification or eutrophication problems, which can further alter their nutritional capacities and ultimately their resilience to global change. We investigated the effect of thermal stress and dissolved inorganic nutrient (DINUT) availability on the auto‐ and heterotrophic nutritional capacities of corals. In particular, we assessed the effect of nitrogen enrichment or DINUT depletion (both in nitrogen and in phosphorus) on the assimilation of heterotrophic nutrients and on the heat‐stress tolerance of the reef‐building coral Stylophora pistillata. Here, we show that DINUT depletion enhanced coral bleaching under thermal stress and more importantly, significantly impaired rates of heterotrophic nutrient assimilation, inducing coral starvation. In contrast, corals grown under nitrogen enrichment maintained high rates of heterotrophic nutrient assimilation and avoided bleaching, although nutrient uptake rates were lowered. We therefore observed a positive coupling between auto‐ and heterotrophy within the coral–dinoflagellate symbiosis, indicating that heterotrophic processes require a minimum of autotrophically acquired nutrients to be functional. These findings show that the trophic plasticity of corals directly depends on the availability of dissolved inorganic nutrients in seawater. The lack of a shift towards greater heterotrophy under DINUT depletion may lead to substantial modifications of the role that feeding plays in the response of reef‐building corals to climate change. A plain language summary is available for this article.

The production of speech is a multistep process requiring close coordination between neurolinguistic, neurocognitive, and neuromotor processes to communicate fluently and seemingly effortlessly. This complex process, which combines speech-specific and domain-general neural mechanisms, involves a closed repertoire of motor programs to control over 100 muscles distributed over the face, neck, and abdomen. The process requires neuromotor mechanisms to implement phonological planning, response selection, sequencing, and timing, contextual adjustments of the motor programs, as well as action execution and response monitoring. Recent advances in neuroimaging and neuromodulation techniques have led to the emergence of neurobiologically realistic models of speech production, leading to more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms involved in producing speech. This chapter reviews the most up-to-date knowledge on the neural organization of the brain systems involved in producing speech.

Speaking is one of the most complex motor actions that humans can perform, requiring the coordination between linguistic, cognitive, affective and sensorimotor systems. Perhaps counter-intuitively, it is also one of the easiest acts that humans perform, on a daily basis, from a very early age till the end of life, without even thinking about it. With age, however, spoken language production undergoes significant changes, with potential impacts on interpersonal communication and social participation. Unfortunately, the neurobiological mechanisms involved are unclear, which impedes efforts towards the development of clinical interventions, differential diagnosis strategies and even prevention strategies for this population. In the present study, we examined age differences in speech production using a simple diadochokinetic rates task in which phonological and sequential complexity were manipulated. 85 cognitively healthy adults (20–93 years) were recruited from the general population. Cognitive level, hearing and depression symptoms were measured. Participants produced short and long sequences of simple and complex syllables aloud as quickly, steadily and accurately as possible. Performance was assessed in terms of articulation rate, articulation rate stability and accuracy. Results show that, controlling for cognition, hearing and depression, articulation rate stability and accuracy declined significantly with age. The phonological manipulation had more impact on performance than the sequential manipulation. These findings were interpreted as reflecting age-related central disruptions at the level of phonological and motor planning, which provides important new cues into underlying neurobiological mechanisms.

Summary Background and Objectives The Voice Handicap Index (VHI) is a widely recognized, self-administered questionnaire, designed to evaluate patients' perception of voice-related disability. It takes into consideration the physical, functional and emotional impacts of dysphonia. The VHI has been translated and validated in many languages, including European French. The purpose of our study is to translate, adapt and validate a new version of the VHI in Quebec French. Methods The original VHI was translated into Quebec French (QF) by forward and backward translations by four professional translators, including a speech-language pathologist. The content validity of the resulting VHI-QF was examined in focus groups with six patients and seven speech-language pathologists. Another sample of 154 patients with voice disorders and 150 healthy controls allowed evaluation of the new questionnaire's convergent and discriminant validity, and internal consistency. Satisfaction toward the questionnaire was also evaluated for all patients, as well Test-retest reliability and responsiveness for a sub-sample. Results The VHI-QF showed a moderate correlation with dysphonia severity level, indicating adequate convergent validity. Both total and subscale scores also exhibited adequate ability to discriminate between patients and controls (discriminant validity), high internal consistency, and good test-retest reliability. The analysis of pre- and post-treatment VHI-QF scores revealed adequate responsiveness to voice treatment. Patients were overall satisfied with the questionnaire. Conclusion The VHI-QF is a valid, reliable and clinically useful self-reported tool to evaluate the severity and change of voice disorders in Quebec French population. Therefore this questionnaire can be used in clinical and research contexts.

Sublexical phonotactic regularities in language have a major impact on language development, as well as on speech processing and production throughout the entire lifespan. To understand the impact of phonotactic regularities on speech and language functions at the behavioral and neural levels, it is essential to have access to oral language corpora to study these complex phenomena in different languages. Yet, probably because of their complexity, oral language corpora remain less common than written language corpora. This article presents the first corpus and database of spoken Quebec French syllables and phones: SyllabO+. This corpus contains phonetic transcriptions of over 300,000 syllables (over 690,000 phones) extracted from recordings of 184 healthy adult native Quebec French speakers, ranging in age from 20 to 97 years. To ensure the representativeness of the corpus, these recordings were made in both formal and familiar communication contexts. Phonotactic distributional statistics (e.g., syllable and co-occurrence frequencies, percentages, percentile ranks, transition probabilities, and pointwise mutual information) were computed from the corpus. An open-access online application to search the database was developed, and is available at www.speechneurolab.ca/syllabo . In this article, we present a brief overview of the corpus, as well as the syllable and phone databases, and we discuss their practical applications in various fields of research, including cognitive neuroscience, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, experimental psychology, phonetics, and phonology. Nonacademic practical applications are also discussed, including uses in speech–language pathology.

Objectives To explore age differences in speech production in relation to orofacial physiology. Design Cross-sectional quasi-experimental group study. Setting General community. Participants Physically and cognitively healthy volunteers recruited from the community (N = 30), including 15 young (18–39) and 15 older (66–85) adults. Measurements Accuracy and speech rate were calculated during the production of sequences of syllables containing oral vowels, nasal vowels, or both. Lip and tongue muscular strength, muscular endurance, and tactile sensitivity were also measured. Results Older adults had a slower speech rate than younger adults and greater difficulty articulating nasal vowels. Analyses revealed that age-related decline in lip endurance is associated with decline in accuracy during speech production. Conclusion Older adults are not just slower than younger adults, they also exhibit specific articulatory difficulties. Although many physiological changes in orofacial functions occur in aging, only muscular endurance of the lips is related to age-related differences in speech production. This information is important for the development of speech interventions targeting older adults with speech motor disorders.

Given that aging is associated with higher risk of cognitive decline and dementia, improving early detection of cognitive impairment has become a research and clinical priority. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) is a screening instrument used to assess different aspects of cognition. Despite its widespread use, norms adjusted to the sociodemographics of Quebec-French people are not yet available. Such norms are however important because performance on neuropsychological tests varies according to sociodemographic variables including age, sex, and education. As such, the present study aimed to establish normative data for the MoCA in middle-aged and elderly Quebec-French population.For that purpose, 1,019 community-dwelling older adults aged between 41 and 98 were recruited. Participants from 12 recruiting sites completed the MoCA. Regression-based normative data were produced and cross-validated with a validation sample (n = 200).Regression analyses indicated that older age, lower education level, and male sex were associated with poorer MoCA scores. The best predictive model included age (p .001), education (p .001), sex (p .001), and a quadratic term for education (education X education; p .001). This model explained a significant amount of variance of the MoCA score (p .001, R2 = 0.26). A regression equation to calculate Z scores is presented.This study provides normative data for the MoCA test in the middle-aged and elderly French-Quebec people. These data will facilitate more accurate detection and follow-up of the risk of cognitive impairment in this population, taking into account culture, age, education, and sex.

In this review, we examine the structural connectivity of a recently-identified fiber pathway, the frontal aslant tract (FAT), and explore its function. We first review structural connectivity studies using tract-tracing methods in non-human primates, and diffusion-weighted imaging and electrostimulation in humans. These studies suggest a monosynaptic connection exists between the lateral inferior frontal gyrus and the pre-supplementary and supplementary motor areas of the medial superior frontal gyrus. This connection is termed the FAT. We then review research on the left FAT’s putative role in supporting speech and language function, with particular focus on speech initiation, stuttering and verbal fluency. Next, we review research on the right FAT’s putative role supporting executive function, namely inhibitory control and conflict monitoring for action. We summarize the extant body of empirical work by suggesting that the FAT plays a domain general role in the planning, timing, and coordination of sequential motor movements through the resolution of competition among potential motor plans. However, we also propose some domain specialization across the hemispheres. On the left hemisphere, the circuit is proposed to be specialized for speech actions. On the right hemisphere, the circuit is proposed to be specialized for general action control of the organism, especially in the visuo-spatial domain. We close the review with a discussion of the clinical significance of the FAT, and suggestions for further research on the pathway.HighlightsThe frontal aslant tract (FAT) is a recently identified fiber pathwayIt connects inferior frontal gyrus with medial frontal motor areasThe left FAT has been associated with speech and language functionThe right FAT has been associated with inhibitory controlBoth FAT pathways may function in sequential motor planning

Speaking requires learning to map the relationships between oral movements and the resulting acoustical signal, which demands a close interaction between perceptual and motor systems. Though historically seen as distinct, the neural mechanisms controlling speech perception and production mechanisms are now conceptualized as largely interacting and possibly overlapping. This chapter charts the history of theoretical and empirical approaches to the interaction of perception and production, focusing on the Motor Theory of Speech Perception and its later revival within the field of cognitive neuroscience. Including insights from recent advances in neuroscience methods, as well as evidence from aging and patient populations, the chapter offers an up-to-date assessment of the question of how motor and premotor cortices contribute to speech perception.

Long association cortical fiber pathways support developing networks for speech and language, but we do not have a clear understanding of how they develop in early childhood. Using diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) we tracked the frontal aslant tract (FAT), arcuate fasciculus (AF), and AF segments (anterior, long, posterior) in 19 typical 5-8-year-olds, an age range in which significant improvement in speech and language function occurs. While the microstructural properties of the FAT and the right AF did not show age-related differences over the age range we investigated, the left AF evidenced increasing fractional anisotropy with age. Microstructural properties of the AF in both hemispheres, however, predicted receptive and expressive language. Length of the left FAT also predicted receptive language, which provides initial suggestion that this pathway is important for language development. These findings have implications for models of language development and for models of the neurobiology of language more broadly.

Brain structure can predict many aspects of human behavior, though the extent of this relationship in healthy adults, particularly for language-related skills, remains largely unknown. The objective of the present study was to explore this relation using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) on a group of 21 healthy young adults who completed two language tasks: (1) semantic fluency and (2) sentence generation. For each region of interest, cortical thickness, surface area, and volume were calculated. The results show that verbal fluency scores correlated mainly with measures of brain morphology in the left inferior frontal cortex and bilateral insula. Sentence generation scores correlated with structure of the left inferior parietal and right inferior frontal regions. These results reveal that the anatomy of several structures in frontal and parietal lobes is associated with spoken language performance. The presence of both negative and positive correlations highlights the complex relation between brain and language.

In this article, we used High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (HARDI) with advanced anatomically constrained particle filtering tractography to investigate the role of the arcuate fasciculus (AF) and the middle longitudinal fasciculus (MdLF) in speech perception in noise in younger and older adults. Fourteen young and 15 elderly adults completed a syllable discrimination task in the presence of broadband masking noise. Mediation analyses revealed few effects of age on white matter (WM) in these fascicles but broad effects of WM on speech perception, independently of age, especially in terms of sensitivity and criterion (response bias), after controlling for individual differences in hearing sensitivity and head size. Indirect (mediated) effects of age on speech perception through WM microstructure were also found, after controlling for individual differences in hearing sensitivity and head size, with AF microstructure related to sensitivity, response bias and phonological priming, and MdLF microstructure more strongly related to response bias. These findings suggest that pathways of the perisylvian region contribute to speech processing abilities, with relatively distinct contributions for the AF (sensitivity) and MdLF (response bias), indicative of a complex contribution of both phonological and cognitive processes to age-related speech perception decline. These results provide new and important insights into the roles of these pathways as well as the factors that may contribute to elderly speech perception deficits. They also highlight the need for a greater focus to be placed on studying the role of WM microstructure to understand cognitive aging.

The involvement of the motor system in action language comprehension is a hotly debated topic in cognitive neuroscience and psychology. Recent studies suggest that primary motor cortex (M1) response to action language is context-sensitive rather than automatic and necessary. Specifically, semantic polarity ( i.e. affirmative/negative valence) appears to modulate the intensity of this response, which is stronger for affirmative action sentences. The aim of our study was to examine further the context sensitivity of M1 response. More specifically, we aimed to determine whether M1 response follows semantic polarity or the core meaning of the sentence using two-part action sentences containing interacting polarities. Modulations of M1 activity were recorded using surface electromyography of the first dorsal interosseous muscle of the right hand in 22 healthy participants. Our results show an increase in M1 activity during the first part of the sentence, regardless of semantic polarity. This response was then modulated by the polarity of the second part of the sentence, which carried crucial information regarding the action. These observations suggest that M1 differentially responds to different aspects of action sentences, one response being automatic and the other following the core meaning of the sentence. Our results thus contribute to clarifying the nature of the motor response to action language, which is key to develop more comprehensive and plausible neurobiological models of language processing.