Verbal fluency is the ability to retrieve lexical knowledge quickly and efficiently and develops during childhood and adolescence. Few studies have investigated associations between verbal fluency performance and brain structural variation in children. Here we examined associations of verbal fluency performance with structural measures of frontal and temporal language-related brain regions and their connections in 73 typically-developing children aged 7–13 years. Tract-based spatial statistics was used to extract fractional anisotropy (FA) from the superior longitudinal fasciculus/arcuate fasciculus (SLF/AF), and the white matter underlying frontal and temporal language-related regions. FreeSurfer was used to extract cortical thickness and surface area. Better semantic and phonemic fluency performance was associated with higher right SLF/AF FA, and phonemic fluency was also modestly associated with lower left SLF/AF FA. Explorative voxelwise analyses for semantic fluency suggested associations with FA in other fiber tracts, including corpus callosum and right inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus. Overall, our results suggest that verbal fluency performance in children may rely on right hemisphere structures, possibly involving both language and executive function networks, and less on solely left hemisphere structures as often is observed in adults. Longitudinal studies are needed to clarify whether these associations are mediated by maturational processes, stable characteristics and/or experience.

语言流畅性是快速有效地检索词汇知识的能力，在儿童和青春期发展。很少有研究调查儿童语言流畅性与大脑结构变异之间的关联。在这里，我们研究了 73 名 7-13 岁正常发育儿童的语言流利表现与额叶和颞叶语言相关大脑区域的结构测量及其连接的关联。基于道的空间统计用于从上纵束/弓状束 (SLF/AF) 以及额叶和颞叶语言相关区域下方的白质中提取分数各向异性 (FA)。FreeSurfer 用于提取皮质厚度和表面积。更好的语义和音素流畅度表现与更高的右 SLF/AF FA 相关，和音素流畅度也与左下方的 SLF/AF FA 适度相关。语义流畅性的探索性体素分析表明与其他纤维束中的 FA 相关，包括胼胝体和右下额枕束。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，儿童的语言流利表现可能依赖于右半球结构，可能涉及语言和执行功能网络，而不是像成年人经常观察到的那样仅依赖于左半球结构。需要纵向研究来阐明这些关联是否由成熟过程、稳定特征和/或经验介导。包括胼胝体和右下额枕束。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，儿童的语言流利表现可能依赖于右半球结构，可能涉及语言和执行功能网络，而不是像成年人经常观察到的那样仅依赖于左半球结构。需要纵向研究来阐明这些关联是否由成熟过程、稳定特征和/或经验介导。包括胼胝体和右下额枕束。总体而言，我们的研究结果表明，儿童的语言流利表现可能依赖于右半球结构，可能涉及语言和执行功能网络，而不是像成年人经常观察到的那样仅依赖于左半球结构。需要纵向研究来阐明这些关联是否由成熟过程、稳定特征和/或经验介导。