loader image
Tuesday, October 21, 2025
76.4 F
McAllen
- Advertisement -

NIH-Funded Study Shows Children Recycle Brain Regions When Acquiring New Skills

During development the brain can repurpose parts when learning to recognize faces and to read

Translate to Spanish or other 102 languages!

Sample images used for testing brain responses in children. To understand how the brain reacts to visual stimuli during development, the researchers grouped stimuli into five domains, each with two categories: characters (words, numbers), body parts (headless bodies, limbs), faces (adult faces, child faces), objects (cars, string instruments), and places (corridors, houses). They then used fMRI to measure activation in the ventral temporal cortex. Image courtesy of Kalanit Grill-Spector and Marisa Nordt.

Mega Doctor News

- Advertisement -

Newswise — Scientists studied the brain activity of school-aged children during development and found that regions that activated upon seeing limbs (hands, legs, etc.) subsequently activated upon seeing faces or words when the children grew older. The research, by scientists at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, reveals new insights about vision development in the brain and could help inform prevention and treatment strategies for learning disorders. The study was funded by the National Eye Institute and is published in Nature Human Behaviour.

“Our study addresses how experiences, such as learning to read, shape the developing brain,” said Kalanit Grill-Spector, Ph.D., a professor at Stanford University’s Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute. “Further, it sheds light on the initial functional role of brain regions that later in development process written words, before they support this important skill of reading.”

Grill-Spector’s team used functional MRI to study areas in the ventral temporal cortex (VTC) that are stimulated by the recognition of images. About 30 children, ages 5 to 12 at their first MRI, participated in the study. While in the MRI scanner, the children viewed images from 10 different categories, including words, body parts, faces, objects, and places. The researchers mapped areas of VTC that exhibited stimulation and measured how they changed in intensity and volume on the children’s subsequent MRI tests over the next one to five years.

- Advertisement -
Developmental brain changes. A, B, and C represent three children who were evaluated with fMRI at two different ages. Solid regions indicate the region at the younger age, and the black outline at the older age. Note that the word (blue, A) and face (red, C) regions grow with age, but the limb-selective region (yellow, B) shrinks with age. Image courtesy of Kalanit Grill-Spector and Marisa Nordt.

Results showed that VTC regions corresponding to face and word recognition increased with age. Compared to the 5-9-year-olds, teenagers had twice the volume of the word-selective region in VTC. Notably, as word-selective VTC volume doubled, limb-selective volume in the same region halved. According to the investigators, the decrease in limb-selectivity is directly linked to the increase in word- and face-selectivity, providing the first evidence for cortical recycling during childhood development.

“The loss of limb-selective volume surprised us,” said first author Marisa Nordt, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Grill-Spector’s lab.  “This challenges a theory of cortical development, which states that new representations, like emerging regions involved in word recognition, are sculpted on previously uncommitted cortex. Our study suggests that during childhood, cortical selectivity can change from one category to another.”

The study authors suggest that cortical recycling in VTC likely reflects adjustments to changing visual demands during childhood. For example, infants tend to look at faces. As they grow into toddlers and learn language, they are exploring objects and deciphering gestures. Word recognition becomes increasingly important as children learn to read.

In future studies, Grill-Spector and colleagues will explore whether decreases in limb-selective VTC volume have behavioral implications, asking if deviations from observed trends have bearing on development disorders.

- Advertisement -
- Advertisement -

- Advertisement -

More Articles

STHS Hosting Webinar on Lung Health, Oct. 21st

Mega Doctor News By supplying oxygen to the body and filtering harmful substances like carbon dioxide, the lungs...

STHS to Provide Amputation Prevention Education, Oct. 26th

Mega Doctor News Despite medical advancements like regenerative wound care, minimally invasive surgical...

Alzheimer’s Association Urges Texans to Vote ‘Yes on 14’ and Fight Dementia

Early voting begins October 20th, giving Texans their first chance to support making the state a national leader in dementia prevention and research. Texas Proposition 14, if approved, would fund the Dementia Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (DPRIT). A “Yes” vote on Prop 14 accelerates progress toward prevention, treatments and a cure, offering hope to Texas families – right here at home.

Dr. Ali Kilic: Advancing Patient-Centered Reconstructive Surgery in the Rio Grande Valley

At the 2025 DHR Health Fashion Show & Gala Honoring Heroic Patients, held on October 15 at the Edinburg Conference Center at Renaissance, Dr. Ali Kilic, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon and Hand Surgeon at DHR Health, was recognized for his commitment to patient-centered reconstructive care and his role in empowering women to reclaim their confidence after breast cancer treatment. The event, themed “A Celebration of Strength, Courage, and Empowerment,” celebrated breast cancer survivors who have undergone reconstruction and honored the physicians who help them heal.
- Advertisement -
×