Language development has been correlated with specific changes in brain development. The aim of this paper is to analyze the linguistic-brain associations that occur from birth through senescence. Findings from the neuropsychological and neuroimaging literature are reviewed, and the relationship of language changes observable in human development and the corresponding brain maturation processes across age groups are examined. Two major dimensions of language development are highlighted: naming (considered a major measure of lexical knowledge) and verbal fluency (regarded as a major measure of language production ability). Developmental changes in the brain lateralization of language are discussed, emphasizing that in early life there is an increase in functional brain asymmetry for language, but that this asymmetry changes over time, and that changes in the volume of gray and white matter are age-sensitive. The effects of certain specific variables, such as gender, level of education, and bilingualism are also analyzed. General conclusions are presented and directions for future research are suggested. 1. Introduction Human language is a communication system in which, via a limited number of meaningless sounds (phonemes), it becomes possible to make a virtually unlimited number of combinations that produce meaningful elements (morphemes, words), which can then be combined to generate an almost endless number of sentences. This property is usually known as the “double articulation of language” [1], which means that the speech stream can be divided into meaningful elements: words that can be further subdivided into meaningless sounds or phonemes. Language structure is characterized by the existence of several levels of analysis [2]. One common distinction is that established in relation to the transmission of meaning via lexicon (vocabulary) and grammar (morphosyntax) [3]. Bickerton [4] emphasizes that symbolic units (lexicon) and syntax (grammar) are the only real novelties in human communication and the most salient of all elements in any adequate theory of language, while Chomsky [5] has made a similar distinction when referring to the conceptual (lexical) and computational (syntactic) aspects of language. In most adults, language has a well-defined cerebral organization in the left hemisphere that includes two main language systems. The first one, involved in lexical/semantic analysis, is associated with Wernicke’s area, while the second, located in the left posterior frontal lobe (Broca’s area), is related to grammar (morphosyntax) and speech
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