Background: Current research suggests a neurobiological marker of developmental language disorder (DLD) in adolescents and young adults may be an atypical neural profile coupled with behavioral performance that overlaps with that of normal controls. Although many imaging techniques are not suitable for the study of speech and language processing in DLD populations, fNIRS may be a viable option. In this study we asked if fNIRS can be used to identify atypical cortical activation patterns in individual adults with DLD and track potential changes in cortical activation patterns following a phonological working memory training protocol enhanced with anodal HD tDCS stimulation to the presupplementary motor area (preSMA). Objective/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was two-fold: (1) to determine if fNIRS can be used to identify atypical hemodynamic responses in individual young adults with DLD during active spoken word processing and, (2) to determine if fNIRS can detect changes in hemodynamic response in these same adults with DLD following anodal HD tDCS enhanced phonological working memory training. Methods: Two adult subjects with DLD (female, age 25) completed a total of two sessions of fNIRs working memory task prior to and following one session of a non-word repetition task paired with anodal HD tDCS (1.0 mA tDCS; 20 min) to the preSMA. Standardized z-scores of behavioral measures (accuracy and reaction time) and changes in hemodynamic response during an n-back working memory task for the two participants with DLD was compared to that of a normative sample of 21 age- and gender- matched normal controls (ages 18 to 25) prior to and following phonological working memory training. Results: Individual standardized z-scores for each participant with DLD indicated that prior to training, hemoglobin response in the prefrontal lobe for both participants was markedly different from each other and normal controls. Following training, standard scores showed that the hemodynamic response for both participants moved within normal limits for ROIs. Conclusion: These findings highlight the feasibility of fNIRS to establish individual differences in the link between behavior and neural patterns in single subjects with DLD, as well as track individual differences in changes in brain activity following working memory training.

中文翻译：

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跟踪 HD tDCS 增强语音工作记忆训练后患有发育性语言障碍的个体成人额叶血流动力学反应的变化：fNIRS 可行性研究

背景：目前的研究表明，青少年和年轻人发育性语言障碍 (DLD) 的神经生物学标志物可能是非典型的神经特征以及与正常对照重叠的行为表现。尽管许多成像技术不适合研究 DLD 人群的语音和语言处理，但 fNIRS 可能是一个可行的选择。在这项研究中，我们询问 fNIRS 是否可用于识别 DLD 个体成人的非典型皮层激活模式，并在使用阳极 HD tDCS 刺激前辅助运动区 (preSMA) 增强语音工作记忆训练方案后跟踪皮层激活模式的潜在变化. 目的/假设：本研究的目的有两个：(1) 确定 fNIRS 是否可用于在主动口语处理期间识别 DLD 个体年轻成人的非典型血流动力学反应，(2) 确定 fNIRS 是否可以检测阳极 HD 后这些 DLD 成年患者的血流动力学反应变化tDCS 增强语音工作记忆训练。方法：两名患有 DLD 的成年受试者（女性，25 岁​​）在与阳极 HD tDCS（1.0 mA tDCS；20 分钟）配对的一次非单词重复任务之前和之后完成了总共两次 fNIR 工作记忆任务到 preSMA。将两名患有 DLD 的参与者的行为测量（准确性和反应时间）的标准化 z 分数和血液动力学反应的变化在 n-back 工作记忆任务期间与 21 名年龄和性别匹配的正常对照的规范样本进行比较（18 至 25 岁）在语音工作记忆训练之前和之后。结果：每位患有 DLD 的参与者的个体标准化 z 分数表明，在训练之前，两个参与者的前额叶血红蛋白反应彼此和正常对照明显不同。训练后，标准分数显示两名参与者的血流动力学反应均在 ROI 的正常范围内移动。结论：