Previous studies have investigated the developmental differences of semantic processing regarding brain activation between adults and children. However, little is known about whether the patterns of structural connectivity and effective connectivity differ between adults and children during semantic processing. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI), and dynamic causal modeling (DCM) were used to study the developmental differences of brain activation, structural connectivity, and effective connectivity during semantic judgments. Twenty-six children (8- to 12-year-olds) and 26 adults were asked to indicate if character pairs were related in meaning. Compared to children, adults showed greater activation in the left ventral inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and left middle temporal gyrus (MTG). Also, adults had significantly greater structural connectivity in the left ventral pathway (inferior frontal occipital fasciculus, IFOF) than children. Moreover, adults showed significantly stronger bottom-up effects from left fusiform gyrus (FG) to ventral IFG than children in the related condition. In conclusion, our findings suggest that age-related increases in brain activation (ventral IFG and MTG), IFOF, and effective connectivity (from FG to ventral IFG) might be associated with the bottom-up influence of orthographic representations on retrieving semantic representations for processing Chinese characters.

中文翻译：

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汉字语义判断结构连接与有效连接的发展差异

以前的研究调查了成人和儿童大脑激活语义加工的发展差异。然而，关于在语义处理过程中成人和儿童之间的结构连接和有效连接模式是否不同，我们知之甚少。使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）、扩散谱成像（DSI）和动态因果模型（DCM）研究语义判断过程中大脑激活、结构连接和有效连接的发育差异。26 名儿童（8 至 12 岁）和 26 名成人被要求指出字符对在含义上是否相关。与儿童相比，成人在左腹下额回 (IFG) 和左颞中回 (MTG) 中表现出更大的激活。还，与儿童相比，成人在左腹侧通路（下额枕叶束，IFOF）中的结构连通性明显更高。此外，成人从左梭状回 (FG) 到腹侧 IFG 的自下而上效应明显强于相关条件下的儿童​​。总之，我们的研究结果表明，与年龄相关的大脑激活（腹侧 IFG 和 MTG）、IFOF 和有效连接（从 FG 到腹侧 IFG）的增加可能与正字法表示对检索语义表示的自下而上的影响有关。处理汉字。与相关条件下的儿童​​相比，成人从左梭状回 (FG) 到腹侧 IFG 表现出明显更强的自下而上效应。总之，我们的研究结果表明，与年龄相关的大脑激活（腹侧 IFG 和 MTG）、IFOF 和有效连接（从 FG 到腹侧 IFG）的增加可能与正字法表示对检索语义表示的自下而上的影响有关。处理汉字。与相关条件下的儿童​​相比，成人从左梭状回 (FG) 到腹侧 IFG 表现出明显更强的自下而上效应。总之，我们的研究结果表明，与年龄相关的大脑激活（腹侧 IFG 和 MTG）、IFOF 和有效连接（从 FG 到腹侧 IFG）的增加可能与正字法表示对检索语义表示的自下而上的影响有关。处理汉字。