1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,640 Welcome to episode 30 of the Language Neuroscience Podcast. 2 00:00:09,640 --> 00:00:14,560 I'm Stephen Wilson and I'm a Language Neuroscientist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, 3 00:00:14,560 --> 00:00:15,560 Australia. 4 00:00:15,560 --> 00:00:18,080 I can't believe that SNL will be here next month. 5 00:00:18,080 --> 00:00:22,400 I've been serving as an amateur travel agent lately, helping people make their holiday 6 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:27,840 plans, lining up trips to the Great Barrier Reef, surfing lessons, hiking adventures in 7 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:30,760 the pristine rainforest wilderness around here. 8 00:00:30,760 --> 00:00:34,600 If you're on the fence, it's not too late to make a plan to come to the conference and 9 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:37,080 spend some time in this beautiful part of the world. 10 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:40,640 Okay, my guest today is Maaike Vandermosten. 11 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:45,080 Maaike is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosciences and head of Speech and Language 12 00:00:45,080 --> 00:00:48,440 research at KU Leuven, in Belgium. 13 00:00:48,440 --> 00:00:53,080 She has two fascinating lines of research, one on the neural basis of developmental dyslexia 14 00:00:53,080 --> 00:00:58,040 and a more recent but rapidly growing focus on neuroplasticity in recovery from aphasia, 15 00:00:58,040 --> 00:01:01,040 a topic that is obviously of special interest to me. 16 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:06,080 In honor of her extremely impressive research achievements, Maaike was a winner last year 17 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:10,920 of the 2023 Early Career Award from the Society for the Neurobiology of Language. 18 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:13,520 Today we're going to talk about both of her lines of work. 19 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:15,520 Okay, let's get to it. 20 00:01:15,520 --> 00:01:16,520 Hi Maaike, how are you today? 21 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:17,520 Hi, yes, Stephen. 22 00:01:17,520 --> 00:01:18,520 I'm fine, thanks for asking. 23 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:23,880 I'm also thanks for inviting me to this podcast. 24 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:26,200 Oh yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. 25 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:30,600 So can you tell me where you are today and what time is it, what's it like where you are? 26 00:01:30,600 --> 00:01:37,360 Yeah, so at the moment I'm in Leuven in Belgium and it's 9 o'clock in the morning, so it's 27 00:01:37,360 --> 00:01:42,280 not that early anymore, but I have already a school rush for the kids and so on, so I'm 28 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:45,520 now starting working day here in the 11th. 29 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:50,840 Oh, okay, you've got the kid to school retain as well, yeah, me too. 30 00:01:50,840 --> 00:01:55,800 Yeah, and in the beginning of September it's a bit more hectic than we still have to get 31 00:01:55,800 --> 00:01:59,840 used to it again, so it's a bit more hectic than normally. 32 00:01:59,840 --> 00:02:02,840 All right, because the school year would have just started for you guys, right? 33 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:03,840 Yeah, this week. 34 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:04,840 Okay. 35 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:10,040 And my oldest daughter, she's now going to secondary school, so there was also a big change, 36 00:02:10,040 --> 00:02:13,240 so all these things have to find their place now. 37 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:17,320 Oh, okay, what grade does secondary school start for you guys? 38 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:19,560 Seventh grade, and she's twelve. 39 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:25,440 Okay, same here, same here, so my daughter will go there in two years, like she's just finishing 40 00:02:25,440 --> 00:02:27,080 up fifth grade now. 41 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:28,080 Okay. 42 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:31,760 Yeah, so we'll be there soon too. 43 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:36,520 And so Leuven, is that, are you from Leuven or did you move there for work or? 44 00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:41,840 No, I'm originally, so Belgium is quite small, so I lived in between Leuven and 45 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:48,720 Brussels, so I came to Leuven for the studies, but it's only like 25 km, so it is 46 00:02:48,720 --> 00:02:52,080 very small, so it's very close by a big in terms of business. 47 00:02:52,080 --> 00:02:54,240 All right, yeah, now it is a small country. 48 00:02:54,240 --> 00:02:59,160 I mean, I remember one time that I sort of went there when I was in the Netherlands, I 49 00:02:59,160 --> 00:03:04,080 sort of went to Belgium by bike, and I didn't even realize I was about to enter Belgium, 50 00:03:04,080 --> 00:03:07,960 it was the first time I'd ever crossed an international border on a bike path, that was 51 00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:08,960 kind of cool. 52 00:03:08,960 --> 00:03:11,800 Yeah, so Leuven looks really beautiful when I was 53 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:14,160 googling it when I was looking you up. 54 00:03:14,160 --> 00:03:18,480 It looks like it's got like a really ancient university, and that's where you work? 55 00:03:18,480 --> 00:03:25,240 Yeah, so it's a very old university, and so it has a lot of long traditions. 56 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:32,400 And the city itself is very nice, it's quite small, so it's a lot of students living here, 57 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:38,000 but it's, I like the combination of, it's still a city, but it's also very calm, so you 58 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:42,800 can do everything by bike and there's not so many cars and so on, so it's nice. 59 00:03:42,800 --> 00:03:46,480 Yeah, it seems quite idyllic, I can see why you've kind of spent your whole life there 60 00:03:46,480 --> 00:03:47,480 apparently. 61 00:03:47,480 --> 00:03:55,840 Okay, so like, I always like to find out like how people got interested in our field, language 62 00:03:55,840 --> 00:04:01,480 and the brain, and I noticed that you actually, you have a degree in speech pathology, that 63 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:07,960 was interesting to see, but how did you get to this field? 64 00:04:07,960 --> 00:04:12,040 Like, did you, were you interested in languages as a kid or the brain or anything like that? 65 00:04:12,040 --> 00:04:14,280 Like, what was your path into the field? 66 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:20,600 Yeah, I did study Speech and Language Pathology and Audiology, and it's not 67 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:25,200 that, when I was a kid, it's not that I only like languages, I was specifically interested 68 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:26,200 in languages. 69 00:04:26,200 --> 00:04:31,600 I remember, for example, in secondary school, I chose like classic languages like Latin 70 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:36,840 and Greek, because I like to study language, but I also how much like, totally different 71 00:04:36,840 --> 00:04:43,560 type of course, like physics, history, so it was, I had a bit of a more like a broad interest 72 00:04:43,560 --> 00:04:49,320 and not specifically in language, and I remember when I was 18, I had to make the choice of 73 00:04:49,320 --> 00:04:56,120 what I would study and then I found it very difficult because I had these broad interests, 74 00:04:56,120 --> 00:05:01,920 and at the time when I was 18, I was also very fascinated by politics and the recent history 75 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:04,480 of our country and Europe and so on. 76 00:05:04,480 --> 00:05:10,800 So I first decided to do a Bachelor in Political Science, so it was something to a different 77 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:11,800 way. 78 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:12,800 Okay. 79 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:18,280 And I'm still happy that I did because it was a good basis also to understand the politics 80 00:05:18,280 --> 00:05:21,880 here in Belgium, for example, because it's quite complicated here. 81 00:05:21,880 --> 00:05:30,440 So, so I first did that, but then I also missed a bit of, yeah, more biologically oriented 82 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:37,320 courses, and then I went in the summer on a kind of volunteering camp, which was in 83 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:45,800 Bulgaria where we worked with in an orphanage, and there I realized that what gives me most 84 00:05:45,800 --> 00:05:51,280 satisfaction or what makes me most happy is to really provide care for people. 85 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:57,440 So then I realized studying the wrong topic, to the moment with political science. 86 00:05:57,440 --> 00:06:01,320 Oh, you didn't think politics was going to provide care for people? (Laughter) 87 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:06,720 It should be in the long term, but I think if you look at politics here in Belgium, it goes 88 00:06:06,720 --> 00:06:09,680 very slowly, so, it's very difficult to have an impact. 89 00:06:09,680 --> 00:06:16,200 And I, yeah, I always had it also when I had to make the choice for university studies, 90 00:06:16,200 --> 00:06:21,200 yeah, I think I was hesitating between something like Speech and Language Pathology or Political 91 00:06:21,200 --> 00:06:27,360 Sciences, and because of the volunteering camp that I did, I realized that I would like 92 00:06:27,360 --> 00:06:32,320 to do something more with helping people in a more direct way. 93 00:06:32,320 --> 00:06:37,600 And then I think the Speech and Language pathology and Audiology was together here in Leuven, 94 00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:44,600 so it was, and it was quite a, also a very diverse programme of courses, as so we had, because 95 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:50,360 of the Audiology and of the Physics as well, but also of course Linguistics, Psychology courses, 96 00:06:50,360 --> 00:06:55,840 and also more medical oriented courses like Neuroanatomy so on. 97 00:06:55,840 --> 00:07:01,000 So for me that was a good choice, because I didn't have to choose for one topic, so I had 98 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:02,000 A bit of everything. 99 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:10,600 And then, the education of Speech and Language and Audiology, I realized I 100 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:13,640 liked the courses on the brain most. 101 00:07:13,640 --> 00:07:20,720 So I was always very fascinated by how the, what's a neural basis of language, and especially 102 00:07:20,720 --> 00:07:24,160 what it goes wrong like in persons with aphasia. 103 00:07:24,160 --> 00:07:29,040 I had my first internship with persons with aphasia and it was for me something, I 104 00:07:29,040 --> 00:07:34,880 remember it very vividly because it was, yeah, it had a big impact on me, seeing what 105 00:07:34,880 --> 00:07:40,800 impact was for the persons with aphasia and how also how different it can be depending 106 00:07:40,800 --> 00:07:42,680 on the person. 107 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:47,480 It always has a very different expression of the language problems. 108 00:07:47,480 --> 00:07:50,880 Yeah, every patient is different, aren't they? 109 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:53,400 Like, there's no two that are identical. 110 00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:59,960 Yeah, I also shared that fascination when I first met people with aphasia, and every time 111 00:07:59,960 --> 00:08:05,480 I would meet somebody, I feel like I would learn something new about language, just by 112 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:08,520 seeing all the different ways it could break down. 113 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:16,280 And with the internship, you try to help them, you try something like certain kind of 114 00:08:16,280 --> 00:08:21,200 intervention, but in the clinical practice, there was often not enough time to really try 115 00:08:21,200 --> 00:08:24,520 to understand why something was working for this person and not for the other. 116 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:31,320 So it was also for me the realization that I would like to continue in research to really 117 00:08:31,320 --> 00:08:35,520 understand why certain things are working and why others are not. 118 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:39,680 Okay, so even while you were doing the Master's degree, you thought, "Oh, okay, I actually 119 00:08:39,680 --> 00:08:41,680 want to become a researcher?" 120 00:08:41,680 --> 00:08:47,920 Yeah, I think the idea emerged throughout the Master's degree, because then you get more 121 00:08:47,920 --> 00:08:54,360 topics where you have more papers to read, and I felt there was still a lot to, and it still 122 00:08:54,360 --> 00:09:00,440 is the case, a lot to discover on how the brain is processing language, so it was a very interesting 123 00:09:00,440 --> 00:09:01,440 field for me. 124 00:09:01,440 --> 00:09:02,440 Right. 125 00:09:02,440 --> 00:09:07,760 So did you go straight into your PhD after that, or did you work as a clinician at all? 126 00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:12,400 No, I went straight to the PhDs, so after I graduated. 127 00:09:12,400 --> 00:09:18,800 So yeah, I first wanted to, ideally when I graduated, I wanted to have a combination of research 128 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:25,360 with clinical practice, but then I was offered the PhD, and then it was still possible to combine 129 00:09:25,360 --> 00:09:26,760 it to a lot of clinical work. 130 00:09:26,760 --> 00:09:31,840 You could still do some, on a voluntary basis, some, you can still work a bit in clinical 131 00:09:31,840 --> 00:09:33,840 practice but not that extensively. 132 00:09:33,840 --> 00:09:34,840 Yeah. 133 00:09:34,840 --> 00:09:38,160 I think there will be such a problem. 134 00:09:38,160 --> 00:09:40,440 Okay. 135 00:09:40,440 --> 00:09:46,280 And is that when you started working on kids in dyslexia, like how did that transition 136 00:09:46,280 --> 00:09:48,880 happen, like into that topic area? 137 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:49,880 Yeah. 138 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:56,840 Yeah, I must admit, I wanted first to work a bit more on aphasia, for example, and look more in their 139 00:09:56,840 --> 00:10:03,840 general processes, but then I came across a PhD position, which was on developmental dyslexia, 140 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:11,120 but it was also looking at the neural correlates of dyslexia, and it also had a very interdisciplinary 141 00:10:11,120 --> 00:10:16,920 team, so we had promoted from educational science, from the scale, and rather from, it was 142 00:10:16,920 --> 00:10:24,640 a physicist, and then, so for Radeology, so I felt for me it was a good combination of 143 00:10:24,640 --> 00:10:30,800 inputs from different directions, so therefore I decided to go for the PhD, although it was 144 00:10:30,800 --> 00:10:36,600 more on developmental dyslexia, and it was in adults, so that I did my study at my PhD study, 145 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:43,880 so it was adults with dyslexia, but I still, yeah, it was a very good combination of input 146 00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:47,920 I received, so I could learn a lot from that topic. 147 00:10:47,920 --> 00:10:48,920 Okay. 148 00:10:48,920 --> 00:10:53,360 I didn't realize you were working with adults back then. 149 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:58,680 But now you've kind of got this big kid project, I think it's called Dysco, or how do you say 150 00:10:58,680 --> 00:10:59,680 it? 151 00:10:59,680 --> 00:11:00,680 How do you say it? 152 00:11:00,680 --> 00:11:07,620 Yeah, I call it Dysco, which is for dyslexia collaboration, so this from dyslexia and 153 00:11:07,620 --> 00:11:15,560 Co from collaboration, and yeah, so as I, as I said during the PhD, I worked with adults, 154 00:11:15,560 --> 00:11:21,200 we looked at brain processes in adults, really structural MRIs, so we looked with diffusion MRI 155 00:11:21,200 --> 00:11:30,240 of right mental connectivity in adults with dyslexia, but it always, I think it was a very 156 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:34,840 valid question often after a presentation, or when I was discussing my work with others, 157 00:11:34,840 --> 00:11:38,360 there was this question, like, yeah, would you find differences in adults with dyslexia in 158 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,160 these white matter connections? 159 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:47,680 But this might be the result of years of reading failure because it's, yeah, white matter 160 00:11:47,680 --> 00:11:48,680 is plastic. 161 00:11:48,680 --> 00:11:53,320 So, what we see in the adults is maybe just the consequence of the fact that they have 162 00:11:53,320 --> 00:11:57,760 reading difficulties and not the cause of it, not the origin of it. 163 00:11:57,760 --> 00:12:05,920 And there was also, back then, also studies like Dehaene, who had his theory on neuronal recycling, 164 00:12:05,920 --> 00:12:12,680 so that the brain is effect not predestined for learning to read, but something that through 165 00:12:12,680 --> 00:12:17,480 our development, through our reading development, you have to adjust your brain to do this new 166 00:12:17,480 --> 00:12:24,320 skill to reading, so by relying on the more existing language network and the existing visual 167 00:12:24,320 --> 00:12:25,320 network. 168 00:12:25,320 --> 00:12:28,880 So, there was this whole idea of reorganization, right? 169 00:12:28,880 --> 00:12:29,880 For learning to read. 170 00:12:29,880 --> 00:12:36,040 So, it also means that what we saw in the adults is really like the product of all these 171 00:12:36,040 --> 00:12:38,880 three organizations that has been going on. 172 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:46,200 So, therefore, it was for me when I wrote a proposal for my postdoc, I wanted to go 173 00:12:46,200 --> 00:12:51,840 earlier to really look at the brain even before the children with dyslexia start to 174 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:53,560 read and write, 175 00:12:53,560 --> 00:12:57,560 to see a bit more and to disentangle a bit more the causes and the consequences. 176 00:12:57,560 --> 00:12:58,560 Okay. 177 00:12:58,560 --> 00:13:04,760 So, did you, so can you tell me about how you went about setting up that longitudinal study? 178 00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:09,560 Because I mean, that's like, that's a huge amount of work, especially you know, you're 179 00:13:09,560 --> 00:13:13,400 starting to think about that just as you're finishing a PhD, huh? 180 00:13:13,400 --> 00:13:16,120 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 181 00:13:16,120 --> 00:13:20,400 Now, we have a little experience already in it with more than three other kids, pre-reading kids 182 00:13:20,400 --> 00:13:26,400 that have been scanned and followed up, but indeed, back then when I started my postdoc, 183 00:13:26,400 --> 00:13:31,760 there was within this course, so there was already a tradition to do longitudinal studies, 184 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:34,400 starting pre-reading was fully believable. 185 00:13:34,400 --> 00:13:40,040 So, but the design was already just at once, so the idea is then that you started kindergarten, 186 00:13:40,040 --> 00:13:43,240 last your kindergarten, so before they started read and write 187 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:47,240 You search for kids who have a risk for dyslexia or for the family 188 00:13:47,240 --> 00:13:50,680 risks or parents or a sibling who has dyslexia. 189 00:13:50,680 --> 00:13:57,240 And then you followed them up so that you can based on the reading data in grade one, grade 190 00:13:57,240 --> 00:14:02,960 two and three, you can make a diagnosis of dyslexia, so you can classify who of these pre-readers 191 00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:06,640 has developed dyslexia and who has developed typical reading skills. 192 00:14:06,640 --> 00:14:12,960 So that approach was already set within the dysco collaboration that we had hearing and 193 00:14:12,960 --> 00:14:15,240 having K-reven. 194 00:14:15,240 --> 00:14:20,360 And then I decided to my postdoc to add the neuroimaging part, so to have also in these 195 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:24,480 kids not only behavioral data, but also neuroimaging data. 196 00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:32,400 We did focus more on the structural MRI, so the one way that the diffusion and the main 197 00:14:32,400 --> 00:14:38,080 reason was, yeah, of course I had so much difficulties to have that done in adults, but also in kids 198 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:43,720 it's very difficult to do functional MRI, especially if you want to tap on specific language 199 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:49,200 processes that have to do a task and in five years old it's really a challenge. 200 00:14:49,200 --> 00:14:55,480 So I think I was happy at least that when I started this first scan in the young children 201 00:14:55,480 --> 00:15:02,080 that I, that was a structural MRI, so the kids could watch a movie which is as you know 202 00:15:02,080 --> 00:15:09,320 when kids are very helpful to names, lines, telling in a scanner. 203 00:15:09,320 --> 00:15:15,920 So we had an advantage in the structural MRI, so the kids were watching a movie. 204 00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:21,280 They did some functional MRI, but it's the quality of the data was much worse than the 205 00:15:21,280 --> 00:15:22,680 structural MRI. 206 00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:28,400 And also something I realized after doing the MRI in the young adults which were very 207 00:15:28,400 --> 00:15:35,480 cooperative and they were very easy to scan, going to the five year olds, it just takes a 208 00:15:35,480 --> 00:15:40,000 lot of time to prepare them, you have to motivate them, there's all kinds of games that 209 00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:42,840 they also have to like because of the problem. 210 00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:47,440 So there's a lot more effort going into the scanning of young children. 211 00:15:47,440 --> 00:15:48,840 Oh, absolutely. 212 00:15:48,840 --> 00:15:56,720 Yeah, so, okay, so Dysco kind of a collaboration that you joined and you added on the whole 213 00:15:56,720 --> 00:15:58,040 neuro component to it. 214 00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:02,760 So there was, you were coming into this with the idea that like you have to look at kids 215 00:16:02,760 --> 00:16:07,000 before they start learning language so that you can kind of like not just have that confound 216 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:10,800 of wondering whether what you're seeing is the consequence of having been a struggling 217 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:14,800 reader for X many years, but you want to see them from the get go before they even start 218 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:18,080 to learn to read and then you're going to track them longitudinally and then you added 219 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:20,800 on this whole neuro component. 220 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:25,440 And as you said, probably a better idea to focus on structural, rather than functional 221 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:29,440 given the cooperation, cooperation abilities of kids. 222 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:31,720 So in your paper is that like a kind of a good summary? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah. 223 00:16:31,720 --> 00:16:40,400 So, in your paper, papers, you talk about like the submarine protocol and the night and damsel 224 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:44,840 protocol and I think these must be like ways of getting the kids to cooperate. 225 00:16:44,840 --> 00:16:49,080 So can you kind of just share what that's like, like working with these like really uncooperative 226 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:51,080 research participants? 227 00:16:51,080 --> 00:16:52,080 Yeah, yeah. 228 00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:55,920 I think for us the most important thing is that they feel at ease when they before they go 229 00:16:55,920 --> 00:17:01,040 in the scanner so that they trusts us and they feel a bit at ease, it's a situation. 230 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:03,560 So what we do is they come one hour beforehand. 231 00:17:03,560 --> 00:17:07,680 So first we sent them a video they can watch at home about the scanner. 232 00:17:07,680 --> 00:17:10,480 We make it like a very playful movie. 233 00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:14,560 So they are prepared already before so they know a bit what will come. 234 00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:19,200 But then the most important part is the one hour before the scanning is that we play all 235 00:17:19,200 --> 00:17:21,400 kinds of games with them. 236 00:17:21,400 --> 00:17:25,280 So for example, that they have to become aware of how it's like that they can't move. 237 00:17:25,280 --> 00:17:31,880 Because if you say to a child like, "Oh, move, they think, okay, moving my head like 10 centimeters 238 00:17:31,880 --> 00:17:33,880 is still perfectly fine." 239 00:17:33,880 --> 00:17:38,280 So for example, do some games that they have in candy that you put on their nose and it has 240 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:43,280 to stay there and if it falls off, then the parents can eat it otherwise they can eat 241 00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:45,280 it so it's very small things. 242 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:52,960 So yeah, so they realize, "Okay, it has to be like really still that we have to be in the scanner." 243 00:17:52,960 --> 00:17:57,520 So this kind of game that really helps and then for each game they play, they get a key 244 00:17:57,520 --> 00:18:02,720 and at the end they have all the keys that can open the castle which is in the MRI scanner 245 00:18:02,720 --> 00:18:07,160 or they can open the ice, the glow and this kind of stuff. 246 00:18:07,160 --> 00:18:11,480 Oh wow, so the prize is that they get to go into the scanner and be scanned? (Laughter) 247 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:15,240 Yeah, but I think at the end it's more depends. 248 00:18:15,240 --> 00:18:21,560 The parents were worried, I think, the kids, especially at the young age, they go with the 249 00:18:21,560 --> 00:18:25,880 flow, they like the games and they see it as a kind of game. 250 00:18:25,880 --> 00:18:32,960 So I think we have very little, yeah, very few children who are not willing to be in the 251 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:33,960 scanner. 252 00:18:33,960 --> 00:18:41,000 So most of them, like I think it's like 95% of the kids went into the scanner and they also 253 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,880 came back to the protocol world. 254 00:18:43,880 --> 00:18:45,880 I say that last thing again? 255 00:18:45,880 --> 00:18:49,840 So I think that the protocol was working because they were coming back. 256 00:18:49,840 --> 00:18:52,840 Oh right, oh, for longitudinal now, yeah. 257 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:53,840 Oh, absolutely. 258 00:18:53,840 --> 00:18:57,320 Yeah, I mean that's kind of something that I've learned in my research too because we do 259 00:18:57,320 --> 00:19:02,120 longitudinal aphasor stuff and like, you know, you learn that like you have to treat people 260 00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:04,800 very kindly because otherwise you won't be seeing them again. 261 00:19:04,800 --> 00:19:09,040 Like you're going to be getting a lot of sort of calls that go straight to voicemail if 262 00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:12,440 they have an unpleasant experience in the scanner. 263 00:19:12,440 --> 00:19:16,320 They might not tell you that they hated it, but you just that you weren't here from them 264 00:19:16,320 --> 00:19:17,320 again. 265 00:19:17,320 --> 00:19:18,320 Yeah, indeed. 266 00:19:18,320 --> 00:19:23,560 In a more recent project, we also had a longitudinal data in persons with aphasia using MRI and 267 00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:29,840 then I always told the postdoc with experience that scanning young children is very 268 00:19:29,840 --> 00:19:30,840 challenging and it is. 269 00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:37,440 But any persons with aphasia is also very challenging because they are often a bit more afraid 270 00:19:37,440 --> 00:19:41,600 because sometimes we're difficult to communicate and so that they understand what will be going 271 00:19:41,600 --> 00:19:42,600 on. 272 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:48,280 So I think definitely with the process for aphasia you're also to put a lot of effort in 273 00:19:48,280 --> 00:19:52,080 the preparation and in getting them through the process. 274 00:19:52,080 --> 00:19:53,080 Oh, totally. 275 00:19:53,080 --> 00:19:57,600 Yeah, it's a different set of challenges, but it's again, like, you know, it's not like when 276 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,880 you're scanning sort of healthy controls and it's like, if something goes wrong, 277 00:20:00,880 --> 00:20:02,680 you just get another one. 278 00:20:02,680 --> 00:20:06,760 Like each person, each participant is like kind of a labour of love, I think, when you 279 00:20:06,760 --> 00:20:09,880 work with these populations. 280 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:14,760 So can you kind of share like, what did you learn? 281 00:20:14,760 --> 00:20:19,440 So when you did start to do this research, what did you learn about? 282 00:20:19,440 --> 00:20:24,480 So you're going to end up dividing the kids into those who become dyslexic and those who 283 00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:28,360 become typically need developing readers and kind of look back at what their brains look 284 00:20:28,360 --> 00:20:30,360 like before that happened. 285 00:20:30,360 --> 00:20:34,160 So can you kind of tell me what changes, what differences you've seen in the brains of 286 00:20:34,160 --> 00:20:39,880 kids that are going to go on to become dyslexic versus those that will not? 287 00:20:39,880 --> 00:20:44,320 Yeah, so concerning the white matter, so we as we did the adults, we looked at the white 288 00:20:44,320 --> 00:20:49,040 matter connections, looked at the more dorsal connection of the reading which is in the left 289 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:52,480 Arcuate fasiculus, but we also looked at the more 290 00:20:52,480 --> 00:20:58,240 Ventral connection between frontal and occipital regions by the IFOF (Inferior Front-Occipital Fasciculus). 291 00:20:58,240 --> 00:21:02,440 And so in the adults, we found that there was, there was, yeah, the fractional anisotropy, 292 00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:06,480 which is an index of white matter organization, that that one was lowering in the adults 293 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:07,480 With dyslexia, yeah. 294 00:21:07,480 --> 00:21:08,480 And so when we looked at the... 295 00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:09,480 In what track, 296 00:21:09,480 --> 00:21:10,480 Sorry? 297 00:21:10,480 --> 00:21:12,480 In what track was it lower in the adults? 298 00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:15,480 Yeah, so in the left arcuate fasciculus 299 00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:16,480 Arcuate, okay. 300 00:21:16,480 --> 00:21:18,480 Left arcuate, OK. 301 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:24,920 Yeah, so there was an over fractional anisotropy and then when we looked at the pre-reading 302 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:30,000 brain, so we could indeed compare the pre-readers who developed dyslexia versus the one 303 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:31,880 who developed it with our reading skills. 304 00:21:31,880 --> 00:21:41,960 We also found a lower FA in the left arcuate fasciculus, so we found this difference, again also a 305 00:21:41,960 --> 00:21:47,200 pre-reading, so it seemed to suggest that it was not just a consequence of a different reading 306 00:21:47,200 --> 00:21:53,560 experience, the person with dyslexia had, but it's really there from the very start. 307 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:59,080 So even before they started to read and write, what we also saw is that... 308 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:05,400 And that was a bit unexpected, we also saw in the right arcuate fasciculus, also a lower FA 309 00:22:05,400 --> 00:22:08,480 for the pre-reading children who developed dyslexia. 310 00:22:08,480 --> 00:22:13,800 So that was a bit unexpected because I think in dyslexia, in the research fields, the 311 00:22:13,800 --> 00:22:21,880 right is often considered also to help compensate for the reading difficulties. 312 00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:22,880 Yeah. 313 00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:30,320 So I think that what we thought maybe that we would find more like an increased FA 314 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:34,840 may mean the right in these children, but that was not a case. 315 00:22:34,840 --> 00:22:39,160 Also, if you look at other pre-reading MRI studies that were happening more or less at 316 00:22:39,160 --> 00:22:45,360 the same time, they often also find bilateral differences, so not only restricted to the 317 00:22:45,360 --> 00:22:52,840 left, but they also have some evidence showing that the other right can be like a compensation 318 00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:58,440 for helping, compensating for the reading difficulties. 319 00:22:58,440 --> 00:23:03,320 So therefore, it was a bit surprised to find also in the right lower FA in the dyslexic 320 00:23:03,320 --> 00:23:04,320 readers. 321 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:05,320 Okay. 322 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:11,680 Yeah, it is a bit surprising, but if other labs are seeing that too, that's reassuring. 323 00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:15,320 And you were seeing these differences in the Dorsal Tracks, right? 324 00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:20,560 Were other labs also replicating that finding or did people see those in ventral too? 325 00:23:20,560 --> 00:23:21,560 Yeah. 326 00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:26,440 I think most studies that used this longitudinal approach and looked at the brain of pre-reader 327 00:23:26,440 --> 00:23:32,280 who later developed, for reading skills, like they did a very similar study in the lab 328 00:23:32,280 --> 00:23:35,400 of Nadine Gaab from MIT. 329 00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:41,400 And also from Miguel Steida, they also had a very similar study, and both of them they also 330 00:23:41,400 --> 00:23:48,760 found that these left arcuates were differently developed in the pre-readers with poor reading 331 00:23:48,760 --> 00:23:49,760 skills. 332 00:23:49,760 --> 00:23:56,600 And that was replicated even in the lab of Nadine Gabb, they even have a study in infants who 333 00:23:56,600 --> 00:23:59,360 have a family risk for dyslexia. 334 00:23:59,360 --> 00:24:03,960 And also, they found this in the left arcuate fasciculus difference. 335 00:24:03,960 --> 00:24:12,560 So I think the left arcuate fasciculus is confirmed also in other independent samples. 336 00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:19,560 However, there's now also more recent large skills studies using thousands of kids from 337 00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:20,560 the lab. 338 00:24:20,560 --> 00:24:25,320 But then with a very wide age range, like often from 8 to 18, and there they don't see this 339 00:24:25,320 --> 00:24:30,120 link with reading skills and have in the left arcuate fasciculus. 340 00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:32,640 They don't see it very clearly. 341 00:24:32,640 --> 00:24:38,240 So I think I know, I think it has something to do probably also that in these large skills 342 00:24:38,240 --> 00:24:42,480 studies that a lot of ages are combined into one big sample. 343 00:24:42,480 --> 00:24:43,480 Yeah. 344 00:24:43,480 --> 00:24:45,240 Well, didn't you? 345 00:24:45,240 --> 00:24:51,040 In your paper where you first reported this, which is the 2017 paper, I think, and I don't 346 00:24:51,040 --> 00:24:52,680 want to butcher your colleague's name. 347 00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:55,960 So maybe you can say the name of the first one. 348 00:24:55,960 --> 00:24:56,960 Yeah. 349 00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:58,200 Jolijan Vandermosten. 350 00:24:58,200 --> 00:24:59,200 Thank you. 351 00:24:59,200 --> 00:25:03,560 So in that 2017 paper, there's also a longitudinal component to that too. 352 00:25:03,560 --> 00:25:09,060 And I was struck by the fact that you saw this effect on the arcuate in the pre-reading 353 00:25:09,060 --> 00:25:11,520 time point, the left arcuate. 354 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:15,440 And then by the sort of post-reading time point, like a year or two later, when they've begun 355 00:25:15,440 --> 00:25:19,480 to read, you actually saw that that difference had normalized between these groups. 356 00:25:19,480 --> 00:25:24,280 So that, if that's the case, that would seem to, that would kind of maybe explain why it's 357 00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:27,760 not being observed in this sort of diverse age later sample, right? 358 00:25:27,760 --> 00:25:29,600 But it's also very mysterious finding. 359 00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:31,960 Like, what do you, what do you make of that? 360 00:25:31,960 --> 00:25:32,960 Yeah. 361 00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,880 So I think in the, you know, sample at least that the pre-reading difference is for a 362 00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:41,840 bit clearer because then the more in primary school, the more they had to learn to read, then 363 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:47,960 we don't see the, the clear difference anymore between the children with dyslexia and without. 364 00:25:47,960 --> 00:25:51,640 I think it has something to do with the fact that when you learn to read, of course, it's 365 00:25:51,640 --> 00:25:55,920 A new experience, and probably that also has an impact on these five matters. 366 00:25:55,920 --> 00:26:02,080 So the right matter is not is a result of age-related maturation, but also of experience 367 00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:03,640 induced changes. 368 00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:08,600 And I can imagine that maybe once you learn to read and write, you get more this experience, 369 00:26:08,600 --> 00:26:11,800 induced changes that also have an impact. 370 00:26:11,800 --> 00:26:15,400 And maybe therefore the relation is a bit as clear. 371 00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:21,200 We did two an additional study where we have, where we looked in this left arcuate fasciculus 372 00:26:21,200 --> 00:26:26,600 more specifically at the cluster where we found the group difference pre-reading between 373 00:26:26,600 --> 00:26:30,480 the dyslexics and the long dyslexic pre-readers. 374 00:26:30,480 --> 00:26:33,480 And if we look within that cluster, we do see it is also, we can see that the difference 375 00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:37,440 is also still present in grade two and also in grade five. 376 00:26:37,440 --> 00:26:45,240 So if we look a bit more specific, the difference seems to be there across primary school. 377 00:26:45,240 --> 00:26:54,640 But I think on the average tract, so if you look at the FA across the whole tract, the difference 378 00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,400 was stronger pre-reading than post-reading. 379 00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:02,880 And I think it has something to do with the fact that the longer, the further throughout development 380 00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:08,360 the more you have also this experience induced changes in the white matter. 381 00:27:08,360 --> 00:27:09,360 Okay. 382 00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:15,720 And what part of the accurate is that real key part where you're still seeing the differences? 383 00:27:15,720 --> 00:27:16,720 even later? 384 00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:20,720 It was more in the temporal prietal part. 385 00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:28,280 And it was, so I think it's something that also needs to be further investigateded in to see 386 00:27:28,280 --> 00:27:36,320 how, to what extent do these differences between the group today remain present across primary 387 00:27:36,320 --> 00:27:37,320 school? 388 00:27:37,320 --> 00:27:42,480 Because I think, for example, in our sample, what we saw, if we look at FA across the 389 00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:47,240 whole track in the arcuate fasciculus, indeed the group difference disappeared. 390 00:27:47,240 --> 00:27:53,600 But it was especially the Children with dyslexia who had already some early interventions. 391 00:27:53,600 --> 00:28:01,440 They seem to have a larger increase, so it might be something that is, because of the intervention, 392 00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:06,320 they followed them, followed an intervention quite early, and that seemed to have helped them 393 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:09,600 in maybe catching up in the left arcuate fasciculus. 394 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:10,600 Yeah. 395 00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:17,320 You had this sort of exploratory correlation where the kids who got more intervention were 396 00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:20,120 having greater changes over time, right? 397 00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:22,960 And you've been following up in recent work. 398 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:28,400 I haven't really looked at those papers in depth as you know, but I think you've been doing 399 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:32,840 some more purposeful interventions that is recently, right? 400 00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:38,360 Yeah, so the idea was indeed because we, with a longitudinal study, it's very difficult 401 00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:46,520 to disentangle age related or age maturation versus more changes that are induced by the environment 402 00:28:46,520 --> 00:28:48,440 or by the experiences you have. 403 00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:52,960 So we decided to do an intervention study because then we could control a bit better these 404 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:58,200 two processes and to disentangle them a bit better. 405 00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:04,440 So the idea was to do reading intervention, but we also decided to do it very early already 406 00:29:04,440 --> 00:29:10,280 in kindergarten, so more like a preventive reading intervention, because there's quite some 407 00:29:10,280 --> 00:29:16,720 behavioral evidence that shows that if you do interventions later, so starting in 408 00:29:16,720 --> 00:29:21,680 grade three, for example, then they are less effective than if you do it early, so in grade 409 00:29:21,680 --> 00:29:26,560 one or even in kindergarten, they often call it the dyslexia paradox. 410 00:29:26,560 --> 00:29:33,400 It's also put forward by the lack of nothing yet because in clinical practice often the kids 411 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:39,080 with dyslexia, they only receive their intervention after the diagnosis is given, but to get a 412 00:29:39,080 --> 00:29:43,080 diagnosis you have to show severe deficit in reading, but also persistent. 413 00:29:43,080 --> 00:29:48,440 So often it takes some time to be able to make diagnosis and so they also advise that 414 00:29:48,440 --> 00:29:53,560 the intensive intervention for reading often only takes place in grade three a later, but 415 00:29:53,560 --> 00:29:59,480 then we know from behavioral intervention studies that then the impact is smaller than 416 00:29:59,480 --> 00:30:01,640 if you would do it earlier. 417 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:09,960 So the idea was with a new study to go to kindergarten to select children who are at risk for dyslexia, 418 00:30:09,960 --> 00:30:12,880 because they can't give a diagnosis yet. 419 00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:20,640 So they are at risk for dyslexia and then we split the group, we randomly assigned half 420 00:30:20,640 --> 00:30:27,640 of the pre-readers at risk to a reading intervention and the other half did also a kind of intervention 421 00:30:27,640 --> 00:30:33,840 very similar, but instead of reading games on a tablet, they played Lego and Lego build 422 00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:35,520 games on tablets. 423 00:30:35,520 --> 00:30:41,800 So we checked beforehand, there was a similar motivation for both games and also in terms 424 00:30:41,800 --> 00:30:46,600 of expectancies from the parents, it was also very similar. 425 00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:52,520 And both groups played an equal amount of time on the tablets, the one group, training 426 00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:59,440 on reading and the other group, training on other skills, more spatial visual skills. 427 00:30:59,440 --> 00:31:02,640 And did it help them? 428 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:09,600 So behaviorally we decided that at risk group who played the reading intervention, they improved 429 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:16,680 for lateral knowledge, also basic reading skills were better than the at risk group who played 430 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:18,760 the control intervention. 431 00:31:18,760 --> 00:31:21,080 So they got better. 432 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:26,120 And if we looked at the white matter tracts, we didn't see an impact on the fractional 433 00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:27,120 anisotropy. 434 00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:31,720 So we first saw, like, we would have expected that this different reading experience would 435 00:31:31,720 --> 00:31:34,760 have an impact on the white matter tracts. 436 00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:39,960 But in the FA values of the fractional anisotropy, we didn't see an effect. 437 00:31:39,960 --> 00:31:44,520 But if we had also an additional MRI scan, where we looked more specifically at myelination 438 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:47,120 and there we did see an effect. 439 00:31:47,120 --> 00:31:52,640 So there we saw an increase in myelination in the children who played the reading intervention 440 00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:58,040 and the increase was not present in the children who played the control intervention. 441 00:31:58,040 --> 00:31:59,040 OK. 442 00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:01,040 And what tract was that seen in? 443 00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:02,040 Yeah. 444 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:03,520 So the myelination was quite widespread. 445 00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,440 We didn't see it in the left arcuate fasciculous. 446 00:32:06,440 --> 00:32:14,200 So there was the group of intervention of the reading intervention, they increased more 447 00:32:14,200 --> 00:32:16,800 in myelination than the control group. 448 00:32:16,800 --> 00:32:18,800 But we also saw it in the ventral tracks. 449 00:32:18,800 --> 00:32:22,800 So it was not very specific. 450 00:32:22,800 --> 00:32:26,760 So it was a bit more widespread than we saw originally. 451 00:32:26,760 --> 00:32:30,320 We also looked at the grey matter. 452 00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:34,800 And there we also saw the thickness of the left Supramarginal gyrus. 453 00:32:34,800 --> 00:32:39,280 We saw an increase in the thickness in the group with the reading intervention and 454 00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:41,840 not in the control group. 455 00:32:41,840 --> 00:32:47,000 So there it was more localized, but for the myelination it seemed to be a bit more widespread. 456 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:53,160 And that's a great brain region for a phonological disorder, certainly, if you believe that dyslexia 457 00:32:53,160 --> 00:32:55,720 is a phonological disorder. 458 00:32:55,720 --> 00:32:59,600 But yeah, before we, I mean, so just stepping back a bit on grey matter, right? 459 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:07,160 So like, what are the grey matter predictors of becoming dyslexic? 460 00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:09,680 Like you mentioned before, the white matter are predictors. 461 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:10,920 Are the grey matter predictors? 462 00:33:10,920 --> 00:33:11,920 Yeah. 463 00:33:11,920 --> 00:33:14,160 So for the white matter, we found for dyslexia. 464 00:33:14,160 --> 00:33:19,760 The left arcuate fasciculus is a good predictor for later reading abilities and for the grey matter. 465 00:33:19,760 --> 00:33:22,200 It was specifically the left fusiform gyrus. 466 00:33:22,200 --> 00:33:26,440 So very close to the region of word form area or sometimes it's also called the 467 00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:27,440 Letterbox. 468 00:33:27,440 --> 00:33:34,160 So the region where you are able to identify letters, regardless in which font they are written. 469 00:33:34,160 --> 00:33:41,760 And also it's also a region involved in recognizes, recognizing larger parts of words or combination 470 00:33:41,760 --> 00:33:42,760 of letters. 471 00:33:42,760 --> 00:33:45,280 So it's more for this processes. 472 00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:46,280 And they're also pre-reading. 473 00:33:46,280 --> 00:33:51,360 We already see that the volume is smaller in the children who later develop dyslexia, 474 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:55,720 relative to the ones who will develop typical reading skills. 475 00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:56,720 Okay. 476 00:33:56,720 --> 00:34:01,520 So what's the, can you just tell me the citation for that finding from your lab? 477 00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:02,520 Yeah. 478 00:34:02,520 --> 00:34:07,080 So it's a study, first author is Caroline Beelen. 479 00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:12,560 So she, I can send you the papers. 480 00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:13,560 I know I have it. 481 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:14,560 I do have that one. 482 00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:19,000 I'm just trying to match up what you're talking about to what I have reviewed. 483 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:23,840 But it's also there because, there was also an unexpected little bit like with the white matter predictors. 484 00:34:23,840 --> 00:34:28,640 And we found a lower FA in both the left and the right arcuates. 485 00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:31,760 Also for the grey and for the fusiform gyrus. 486 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:35,600 We also found it left and right. 487 00:34:35,600 --> 00:34:37,680 That there was a lower volume. 488 00:34:37,680 --> 00:34:44,960 Again, the left was a bit more pronounced in that it was relating more to individual differences 489 00:34:44,960 --> 00:34:48,120 like phonological abilities in these kids. 490 00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:52,040 And also we did a whole brain analysis. 491 00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:57,880 So not looking for region, but just looking more at the voxel level. 492 00:34:57,880 --> 00:35:01,280 Then we only replicated in the left fusiform. 493 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:04,280 So it was a bit strong in the left than the right. 494 00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:10,880 So it's interesting that you're seeing this pre-reading difference in the fusiform 495 00:35:10,880 --> 00:35:16,800 gyrus, but then the change that you elicit through your training program is in the supramarginal 496 00:35:16,800 --> 00:35:18,040 gyrus. 497 00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:23,360 So do you think that's kind of like are you training a compensatory mechanism rather than like 498 00:35:23,360 --> 00:35:24,360 making them normal? 499 00:35:24,360 --> 00:35:27,280 Like, what do you think is going on with that? 500 00:35:27,280 --> 00:35:33,360 Yeah, so indeed we might have expected to see some changes also more in this around 501 00:35:33,360 --> 00:35:35,880 this visual word from area. 502 00:35:35,880 --> 00:35:38,480 That we saw it only in the supramarginal gyrus. 503 00:35:38,480 --> 00:35:46,000 I think the training was really focused on connecting sounds, phonemes to letters to 504 00:35:46,000 --> 00:35:47,000 graphemes. 505 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,880 So really about this grapheme-phoneme coupling. 506 00:35:49,880 --> 00:35:54,000 So I think that's probably the reason why we see the bit more in supramarginal gyrus because 507 00:35:54,000 --> 00:36:00,200 there you have to do this coupling more between this phonological and this, between the graphemes 508 00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:01,440 and the phonemes. 509 00:36:01,440 --> 00:36:05,160 So I think it's very because of the focus of the training in the range of those really 510 00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:07,920 on that aspect of reading. 511 00:36:07,920 --> 00:36:14,880 Maybe if you would do, I can maybe imagine if you do a longer training also including 512 00:36:14,880 --> 00:36:19,760 more advanced reading skills where it also becomes important to directly recognize the visual 513 00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:23,200 words based on the orthographic representation. 514 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:29,200 Then maybe we might see, might train more this visual words from area than we did now. 515 00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:31,760 But it's a little bit of a question. 516 00:36:31,760 --> 00:36:38,880 And I think with regard to the pre-reading differences, I indeed also expected because 517 00:36:38,880 --> 00:36:43,720 of the phonological problems versus with dyslexia have to find pre-reading deficit for this 518 00:36:43,720 --> 00:36:44,720 temporoparietal regions. 519 00:36:44,720 --> 00:36:49,800 But for the memory, we only found it in the fusiform. 520 00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:56,640 I thought it was first because we looked at the orthotical regions and SDG for example is 521 00:36:56,640 --> 00:36:58,520 a very broad region. 522 00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:06,000 But even if we did it more like on a voxel-based search, we didn't find what we expected. 523 00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:10,360 We didn't find this pre-reading differences in temporoparietal region. 524 00:37:10,360 --> 00:37:13,000 Well, you know, the data is the data, right? (Laughter) 525 00:37:13,000 --> 00:37:17,760 You can't change the facts. 526 00:37:17,760 --> 00:37:19,760 Okay, well that's very cool. 527 00:37:19,760 --> 00:37:25,840 So I know that most of your career has been focused on developmental dyslexia. 528 00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:34,240 But you also know like, when I wrote to you a week or two ago, it was about your very interesting 529 00:37:34,240 --> 00:37:41,360 aphasia paper that you just published as a pre-print and then I also saw at SNL in Marseille. 530 00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:45,520 So can we shift gears and talk about that new direction in your research? 531 00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:46,520 Yeah, okay. 532 00:37:46,520 --> 00:37:50,120 So it's a little bit of a shift. 533 00:37:50,120 --> 00:37:55,560 I know from my two research lines, one more on developmental dyslexia and one more on 534 00:37:55,560 --> 00:38:01,960 aphasia because it was when I started the tenor track here at KU Leuven. 535 00:38:01,960 --> 00:38:07,120 Then it was always my interest to work on aphasia. 536 00:38:07,120 --> 00:38:13,520 So I think I saw a lot of links, a lot of things in common between these two. 537 00:38:13,520 --> 00:38:17,960 So I think a lot of the methodology, like the longitudinal and the predictive modeling that 538 00:38:17,960 --> 00:38:21,760 we use in dyslexia, I could also apply it to aphasia. 539 00:38:21,760 --> 00:38:27,120 So the first project I did on aphasia was more about longitudinal, follow-up and neuroplasticity. 540 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:32,000 So very much linked to the development of dyslexia. 541 00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:43,400 So I think now both research lines are as big or equally, equal number of researchers working 542 00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:44,400 on it. 543 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:51,040 And I'm very happy that I can now combine these two research fields because I feel I get 544 00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:55,640 a lot of insight from the development of dyslexia fields that can help me understanding 545 00:38:55,640 --> 00:38:57,640 something in aphasia. 546 00:38:57,640 --> 00:39:03,440 So I was really happy to be able to sort out the research line in aphasia. 547 00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:04,440 Yeah, that's cool. 548 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:09,400 So you're able to really bring all those sort of CogNeuro skills that you've developed 549 00:39:09,400 --> 00:39:14,040 and imaging skills and apply them in this different population. 550 00:39:14,040 --> 00:39:20,440 Yeah, a lot of the same challenges, like, you know, needing to do longitudinal, needing 551 00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:24,280 to deal with brains that are changing in shape and size. 552 00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:25,800 Yeah, that's cool. 553 00:39:25,800 --> 00:39:29,640 And it's very interesting to hear that, like, you know, aphasia was kind of like your initial 554 00:39:29,640 --> 00:39:30,960 interest in the field, right? 555 00:39:30,960 --> 00:39:33,720 And now you're getting back to it. 556 00:39:33,720 --> 00:39:38,400 I think for me, that sort of happened a little bit too with my postdoc, where I worked 557 00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:39,400 on PPA. 558 00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:46,680 I worked on PPA with Mary L Gorno-Tempini and like, I really wanted to do like acute stroke. 559 00:39:46,680 --> 00:39:51,000 And I was, when I started that postdoc, I was like, can I like do some stroke stuff 560 00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:52,000 on the side? 561 00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:53,000 She's like, why would you want to? 562 00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:54,000 But sure. 563 00:39:54,000 --> 00:39:58,320 And then of course, like, I didn't have time, like, I just worked on PPA for like five years. 564 00:39:58,320 --> 00:40:04,560 And then I found my way back to acute stroke eventually, which is, you know, took a while. 565 00:40:04,560 --> 00:40:07,360 And all the stuff that I learned along the way was invaluable. 566 00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:10,000 And then you come to the field with a new perspective that you bring from somewhere else 567 00:40:10,000 --> 00:40:11,000 that's cool. 568 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:12,000 Yeah. 569 00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:14,000 And I feel a bit the same. 570 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:19,160 So I still have this dyslexia research brand, and then I slowly throughout the past years, 571 00:40:19,160 --> 00:40:25,360 I try to have some easier research and, yeah, I think there's a lot of things that come 572 00:40:25,360 --> 00:40:28,160 on in the box and it can be learned from the two fields. 573 00:40:28,160 --> 00:40:29,160 Yeah. 574 00:40:29,160 --> 00:40:30,160 So, yeah, definitely. 575 00:40:30,160 --> 00:40:33,800 So this paper, it's very nice. 576 00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:38,720 It's very like, it has a clear question and a clear answer. 577 00:40:38,720 --> 00:40:46,920 So can you kind of tell me, tell our listeners, like, what's the question that you set out 578 00:40:46,920 --> 00:40:48,960 to address with this paper? 579 00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:49,960 Yeah. 580 00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,480 So the, we should name the author too. 581 00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:53,480 We should name the citation. 582 00:40:53,480 --> 00:40:54,480 Yeah. 583 00:40:54,480 --> 00:40:57,720 I think it's the first author is Pieter De Clercq. 584 00:40:57,720 --> 00:41:00,200 And so he's like a very brilliant researcher. 585 00:41:00,200 --> 00:41:06,360 We did a lot of efforts in this paper and in a lot of the, all the nice, all the nice 586 00:41:06,360 --> 00:41:08,080 analyses and so on. 587 00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:11,320 And in fact, this week he's his last week. 588 00:41:11,320 --> 00:41:13,120 He's here at KU Leuven. 589 00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:17,160 He's moving now to industry, so to a company. 590 00:41:17,160 --> 00:41:21,760 He's not his leaving academia, but he's like a very talented researcher. 591 00:41:21,760 --> 00:41:26,960 He has a background in psychology, but also a Master's AI. 592 00:41:26,960 --> 00:41:29,400 So he was, I think, on the job market. 593 00:41:29,400 --> 00:41:32,960 He was, yeah, many people wanted to have him. 594 00:41:32,960 --> 00:41:35,360 Yeah, well, that'll be great for him. 595 00:41:35,360 --> 00:41:38,400 And it's a bit of a loss to our field. 596 00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:39,400 Yeah. 597 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:40,400 Yeah. 598 00:41:40,400 --> 00:41:41,400 Yeah. 599 00:41:41,400 --> 00:41:45,000 And so the studies in MRI study, so in dyslexia we 600 00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,560 often focused on the structural MRI, but it, of course, has a lot of limitations, 601 00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:53,200 because you never know if you investigate a certain region, what is in the function of 602 00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:58,040 that region, you have to, yeah, assume a certain function based on the correlation you find 603 00:41:58,040 --> 00:42:0 behavioral or other studies. 604 00:42:01,840 --> 00:42:08,560 And so the idea was now more to really have, yeah, functional MRIs, so that we could really 605 00:42:08,560 --> 00:42:14,920 find the language network or define it better in persons with aphasia. 606 00:42:14,920 --> 00:42:20,520 And there was, yeah, of course, we knew about the work from Ev Fedorenko, who has put a lot 607 00:42:20,520 --> 00:42:26,320 of efforts in, in reliably defining this language network. 608 00:42:26,320 --> 00:42:31,160 And, but we had a lot of questions, all, okay, it's, what about versus with aphasia? 609 00:42:31,160 --> 00:42:37,080 Because maybe in young adults, you see a clear distinction between a language network and 610 00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:41,680 a network, which is more involved in higher order, cognitive functioning, so the multiple 611 00:42:41,680 --> 00:42:45,600 demand network. 612 00:42:45,600 --> 00:42:48,000 The group of Ev Fedorenko has shown in multiple studies that there is wide dissociation, 613 00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:54,480 so there's also much overlap if you look at individual, individually defined language 614 00:42:54,480 --> 00:43:00,920 network, then in these voxels, you will not see a lot of activity when they do a cognitive 615 00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:01,920 demand and tasks. 616 00:43:01,920 --> 00:43:05,320 So that's what they found, but that's often in young adults. 617 00:43:05,320 --> 00:43:10,680 So in our study, yeah, I just want to, like, kind of sum that up just to keep make sure 618 00:43:10,680 --> 00:43:11,680 everybody is on the same page. 619 00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:18,240 So, so yeah, like Ev has shown with her collaborators, like Idan Blank and Cory 620 00:43:18,240 --> 00:43:26,520 Shain and Yavda Yatchek, that there is this, you know, language network is left lateralized, 621 00:43:26,520 --> 00:43:30,360 frontal temporal, mostly, we all know where that is. 622 00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:34,960 And then it contrasts with this multiple demand network that's bilateral and it has nodes 623 00:43:34,960 --> 00:43:41,960 in the Insula, sort of superior, more sort of dorsal lateral prefrontal superior-ish 624 00:43:41,960 --> 00:43:43,200 parietal. 625 00:43:43,200 --> 00:43:46,080 So it's kind of got quite a different anatomy to it. 626 00:43:46,080 --> 00:43:51,000 And it does seem to overlap in parts if you don't look too closely, like, especially in 627 00:43:51,000 --> 00:43:56,120 the, like, kind of in the frontal operculum, but Ev and her colleagues have basically found 628 00:43:56,120 --> 00:43:59,840 that, you know, if you look at an individual basis, there isn't much overlap. 629 00:43:59,840 --> 00:44:03,280 So what, you know, might look in a group analysis, like, overlapping networks and not really 630 00:44:03,280 --> 00:44:04,840 overlapping networks. 631 00:44:04,840 --> 00:44:11,320 And then, you know, she's also found that, you know, like you just said, like the language 632 00:44:11,320 --> 00:44:16,840 network doesn't respond to cognitively demanding tasks and similarly cognitively demanding tasks. 633 00:44:16,840 --> 00:44:20,520 So, and the multiple demand network doesn't respond to language. 634 00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,680 But like you just said, that's all been done in normals. 635 00:44:23,680 --> 00:44:28,240 And a lot of people have speculated that, like, in aphasia, like, maybe the MD network is 636 00:44:28,240 --> 00:44:29,240 compensatory, right? 637 00:44:29,240 --> 00:44:34,480 So, like, when the language network is damaged, maybe you are going to rely on the MD network 638 00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:37,760 as a compensatory mechanism. 639 00:44:37,760 --> 00:44:41,320 And this is an idea of much interest. 640 00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:47,200 It's not, and it's got some evidence in favor of it, but you tested it very directly here. 641 00:44:47,200 --> 00:44:48,200 Yeah. 642 00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:54,120 So I did the main aim of that study was to see maybe persons with aphasia, maybe a compensate 643 00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:58,760 for their language deficit by relying more of this multiple demand network. 644 00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:02,560 And I think it's, it's very important to get insight in that, because I think also in 645 00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:08,600 terms of intervention, if there is, if indeed doing language or more relying also on this 646 00:45:08,600 --> 00:45:12,520 multiple demand network, maybe then it's good to train more of these cognitive skills and 647 00:45:12,520 --> 00:45:16,120 maybe the natural transfer to your language skills or have an impact on language, but if 648 00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:21,880 it's really like separate networks, also in process for aphasia, then maybe if there's 649 00:45:21,880 --> 00:45:26,520 of intervention, you also maybe we should target them more really language processing and 650 00:45:26,520 --> 00:45:30,840 try to improve that, other than focusing on cognitive skills, for example. 651 00:45:30,840 --> 00:45:37,920 So I think for me, it's like, yeah, very important to know how it's working persons with aphasia, 652 00:45:37,920 --> 00:45:43,600 because we assume they have a large lesion in the left language network. 653 00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:50,160 So in order to come to language, maybe then as a backup, they start to use more, or the 654 00:45:50,160 --> 00:45:52,760 right, or more, these multiple demand features. 655 00:45:52,760 --> 00:45:56,960 So, and in this paper, we're really focused on these, these multiple demand features. 656 00:45:56,960 --> 00:46:04,440 So, we asked, we had a group of 15 persons with aphasia, a stroke, a necrotic stage, and 657 00:46:04,440 --> 00:46:12,040 then we had the group of controls, so they were each matched, so it's also older healthy controls. 658 00:46:12,040 --> 00:46:16,600 So we first also need to know, what is, yeah, how is it in the healthy controls? 659 00:46:16,600 --> 00:46:18,000 Oh, hang on a sec. 660 00:46:18,000 --> 00:46:21,840 Can I ask you something before you go into it? 661 00:46:21,840 --> 00:46:23,240 What did you think you were going to find? 662 00:46:23,240 --> 00:46:28,840 Like, did you or got say that the people with aphasia are going to rely on the MD network? 663 00:46:28,840 --> 00:46:30,800 Or did you think you were going to get null result? 664 00:46:30,800 --> 00:46:37,880 I have to say back about, I think based on the literature, there is some evidence that 665 00:46:37,880 --> 00:46:43,560 the multiple demand that's where it would have been, that can be recruited also in persons 666 00:46:43,560 --> 00:46:47,520 who have faced any language processing. 667 00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:52,240 But on the other hand, there's, yeah, for example, if you look at, if I look more at 668 00:46:52,240 --> 00:46:57,200 the literature on interventions, there is very little evidence that if you train cognitive 669 00:46:57,200 --> 00:47:01,000 skills, then it transfers to language skills. 670 00:47:01,000 --> 00:47:07,000 So in that perspective, I thought maybe it is slightly more to separate networks. 671 00:47:07,000 --> 00:47:13,800 So I think it was a bit, yeah, two lines of evidence, which made it a bit difficult to 672 00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:16,960 know what we would expect. 673 00:47:16,960 --> 00:47:22,000 And especially also, I think it was good that we had an age control, like age matched 674 00:47:22,000 --> 00:47:28,840 control group, because also in adults, you could think they need a bit more resources to communicate, 675 00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:33,280 maybe they need more cognitive resources to do that. 676 00:47:33,280 --> 00:47:36,320 So it's good that we have that group as well, because otherwise, if you wouldn't have 677 00:47:36,320 --> 00:47:40,120 age matched controls, then we would see some, the views of the multiple demand that's 678 00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:45,560 where they're language processing in persons with aphasia, who'd also be just be an age 679 00:47:45,560 --> 00:47:50,520 effect, but it's just, well, they're older than do that. 680 00:47:50,520 --> 00:47:51,520 Yes. 681 00:47:51,520 --> 00:47:53,160 Okay, so you weren't, so yeah, you're right. 682 00:47:53,160 --> 00:47:56,040 Yeah, you definitely wouldn't need all age matched controls. 683 00:47:56,040 --> 00:47:58,680 So you were kind of like of two minds as to what you were going to find. 684 00:47:58,680 --> 00:48:01,840 You were genuinely, could thought it could have gone either way. 685 00:48:01,840 --> 00:48:02,840 Yeah. 686 00:48:02,840 --> 00:48:03,840 In the use of that. 687 00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:06,800 Okay, so now can you tell us what you did exactly? 688 00:48:06,800 --> 00:48:13,760 Yeah, I think the most important analysis is when we, so the participants, it's language 689 00:48:13,760 --> 00:48:19,080 tasks, like reading tasks, where there was a contrast between reading sentences versus 690 00:48:19,080 --> 00:48:23,960 pseudo-wrench reading, so that at the end, when you have this contrast that you can expect 691 00:48:23,960 --> 00:48:28,240 really the language processing, but then it's more the semantic and syntactic processing 692 00:48:28,240 --> 00:48:29,520 that you would extract. 693 00:48:29,520 --> 00:48:34,960 We also had another language task, a listening task, very similar. 694 00:48:34,960 --> 00:48:41,880 So here it is, and to index sentences, and then your contrast is then with the graded speech. 695 00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:48,280 We used a contrast which really has no information on the phonemes, no semantic, no syntax. 696 00:48:48,280 --> 00:48:59,000 So here in the listening task, yeah, we also could look at what is maintained, both the 697 00:48:59,000 --> 00:49:01,920 phonological, semantic, and syntactic information. 698 00:49:01,920 --> 00:49:08,480 So we had these two language localizers, but then we also had multiple demand localizers, 699 00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:14,080 so they had to do a visual spatial task, and we already saw a grid with a square that 700 00:49:14,080 --> 00:49:18,200 was colored, and then we say another grid, and then they have to combine these two grids 701 00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:21,520 to say where the squares were colored. 702 00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:26,520 So it's like a visual working memory task. 703 00:49:26,520 --> 00:49:34,960 And so the main analysis is that we looked per individual, what are the most active voxels 704 00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:37,040 during this multiple demand task. 705 00:49:37,040 --> 00:49:42,720 So then we could really individual define what is, for this subject, the multiple demand 706 00:49:42,720 --> 00:49:43,720 network. 707 00:49:43,720 --> 00:49:48,120 So we had a set of voxels that were selected for each subject, so for each subject, it's 708 00:49:48,120 --> 00:49:53,440 a bit of a different selection, so it's really based on this localizer task. 709 00:49:53,440 --> 00:50:00,360 And then within these set of voxels that were selected, we looked at are these voxels active 710 00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:01,840 during language processing. 711 00:50:01,840 --> 00:50:08,720 So we looked at the devalues when they were doing this language localizer task, within 712 00:50:08,720 --> 00:50:13,400 this subject specific multiple demands network. 713 00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:14,400 Yeah. 714 00:50:14,400 --> 00:50:16,160 That's a bit more about it. 715 00:50:16,160 --> 00:50:17,160 Say again? 716 00:50:17,160 --> 00:50:19,160 Yeah, that's the approach. 717 00:50:19,160 --> 00:50:20,160 Yeah, okay. 718 00:50:20,160 --> 00:50:27,280 So there's a written language task and control, a spoken language task and control, then 719 00:50:27,280 --> 00:50:33,120 there's this difficult versus easy working memory contrast for the MD network. 720 00:50:33,120 --> 00:50:40,960 And then you kind of use this approach of finding the individual voxels that are the most 721 00:50:40,960 --> 00:50:42,560 responsive to each of these things. 722 00:50:42,560 --> 00:50:45,880 But you do it quite differently to her actually, because like she does it in these little 723 00:50:45,880 --> 00:50:49,760 parcels that she's come up with back in 2010 and been using ever since. 724 00:50:49,760 --> 00:50:53,160 But as far as I can understand, you guys did it like in the whole network. 725 00:50:53,160 --> 00:50:57,640 You just kind of took the whole language network and said where are the most responsive 726 00:50:57,640 --> 00:50:59,480 voxels and the same for the MD, right? 727 00:50:59,480 --> 00:51:00,480 Is that correct? 728 00:51:00,480 --> 00:51:01,480 Yeah, indeed. 729 00:51:01,480 --> 00:51:08,080 We also provide in the supplementary information, the approach that Fedorenko is using with 730 00:51:08,080 --> 00:51:11,960 the individual parcels, so really individual regions. 731 00:51:11,960 --> 00:51:16,080 But we felt something that, yeah, you have them, it's sometimes very small regions. 732 00:51:16,080 --> 00:51:20,920 So if you then look at the 10% most active voxels often, it's a lot of noise that you're measuring. 733 00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:27,160 So we felt if we take a 10% most active voxels across the whole language network or across 734 00:51:27,160 --> 00:51:34,560 the whole multiple the month network, we have maybe a bit less biased and also maybe a 735 00:51:34,560 --> 00:51:38,440 more less noisy activation veteran that we can experience. 736 00:51:38,440 --> 00:51:39,440 Yeah. 737 00:51:39,440 --> 00:51:41,760 And it would make it easier for people with aphasia too. 738 00:51:41,760 --> 00:51:45,520 We have some of the parcels might be completely destroyed. 739 00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:49,800 And from Ev's point of view, it wouldn't matter anyway because she claims that all the parcels 740 00:51:49,800 --> 00:51:54,480 are basically identical in their function, so it doesn't really matter. 741 00:51:54,480 --> 00:51:58,160 Anyway, I mean, this is like kind of a technical detail, but I couldn't help but notice that you 742 00:51:58,160 --> 00:52:01,440 were doing it in a unique way. 743 00:52:01,440 --> 00:52:06,440 So, but I thought it seems reasonable. 744 00:52:06,440 --> 00:52:07,440 Okay. 745 00:52:07,440 --> 00:52:14,480 So, what did you find when you looked at how these MD voxels respond, how did they respond 746 00:52:14,480 --> 00:52:17,680 when the participants were doing the language contrasts? 747 00:52:17,680 --> 00:52:18,680 Yeah. 748 00:52:18,680 --> 00:52:25,600 So, we saw that in this subject specific in the network, there was no activation during 749 00:52:25,600 --> 00:52:26,600 language processing. 750 00:52:26,600 --> 00:52:33,840 So, when they did the language localizing task, we could not find any significant activation 751 00:52:33,840 --> 00:52:37,720 in this MD network. 752 00:52:37,720 --> 00:52:41,080 This was a case for the controls for the healthy controls, but it was also the case for the 753 00:52:41,080 --> 00:52:42,080 person's with aphasia. 754 00:52:42,080 --> 00:52:43,080 Yeah. 755 00:52:43,080 --> 00:52:47,600 So, it was not that the person's phoenix that they are using is multiple amount features 756 00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:49,640 while they're processing language. 757 00:52:49,640 --> 00:52:50,640 Yeah. 758 00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:55,440 So, the control finding is essentially a replication in older adults of Dietrich at 759 00:52:55,440 --> 00:53:03,160 old 2020 and some of the other studies while the aphasia finding is very novel and 760 00:53:03,160 --> 00:53:07,640 really directly addresses that question of like, you know, are people with aphasia going 761 00:53:07,640 --> 00:53:11,960 to differentiate their own MD network to make up for their loss of language regions and 762 00:53:11,960 --> 00:53:14,400 basically you saw no evidence for that at all, huh? 763 00:53:14,400 --> 00:53:15,400 Yeah. 764 00:53:15,400 --> 00:53:20,480 So, I think doing, because that's maybe an important remark, doing passive language listening 765 00:53:20,480 --> 00:53:26,720 or just a basic reading task, then indeed we don't see even the person with aphasia, 766 00:53:26,720 --> 00:53:31,720 we don't see any activation in this multiple demand regions. 767 00:53:31,720 --> 00:53:37,120 I do, I'm still not convinced, for example, if we would do more complex language tasks like 768 00:53:37,120 --> 00:53:44,320 when we were talking now, thinking about what I would say and there's a lot of more task 769 00:53:44,320 --> 00:53:48,440 going on than the task we provided in the scanner. 770 00:53:48,440 --> 00:53:51,320 So, I think that might still be different. 771 00:53:51,320 --> 00:53:55,000 So, in daily communication where you have an interaction with another person, you have 772 00:53:55,000 --> 00:53:58,600 to listen and you have to think about what you will say already. 773 00:53:58,600 --> 00:54:04,320 I assume or I think there there might be more involvement of this MD network, but in the 774 00:54:04,320 --> 00:54:09,480 conditions that we test that, where you have more like a passive listening task, for example, 775 00:54:09,480 --> 00:54:13,560 it's natural speech, but it's more like passive listening than we don't see involvement 776 00:54:13,560 --> 00:54:15,040 of the MD network. 777 00:54:15,040 --> 00:54:16,040 Yeah. 778 00:54:16,040 --> 00:54:20,000 Well, you might think that for people with aphasia like, you know, even everyday language 779 00:54:20,000 --> 00:54:23,200 processing could be expected to be more cognitively demanding. 780 00:54:23,200 --> 00:54:26,440 I mean, certainly they report it to be such. 781 00:54:26,440 --> 00:54:34,760 So, maybe it's a pretty strong argument that that's not the kind of the way that compensation 782 00:54:34,760 --> 00:54:35,760 logs. 783 00:54:35,760 --> 00:54:38,800 Yeah, yeah, yeah, true, yeah. 784 00:54:38,800 --> 00:54:44,520 So how do you think they do, if they're not using the MD network to process language, 785 00:54:44,520 --> 00:54:48,280 how are they making up for the damaged language areas? 786 00:54:48,280 --> 00:54:56,040 Yeah, I think in our city, now we looked at, we looked at left and right, so maybe the 787 00:54:56,040 --> 00:55:01,200 right, homologue regions, or maybe take over, we couldn't, we did some, unless we didn't 788 00:55:01,200 --> 00:55:07,000 find any evidence at the right, it's maybe helping a bit more, but I'm very fascinated 789 00:55:07,000 --> 00:55:08,000 about that. 790 00:55:08,000 --> 00:55:13,080 So I think it would be nice to invest a bit more in that, it's maybe, because you always 791 00:55:13,080 --> 00:55:16,960 see this right activation also where you process language. 792 00:55:16,960 --> 00:55:19,760 It's probably a bit less crucial, but it is also there. 793 00:55:19,760 --> 00:55:24,360 So I think that is something I would like to invest a bit more, so maybe there are 794 00:55:24,360 --> 00:55:33,040 these right homologue regions, maybe they are maybe better in compensating for the deficits 795 00:55:33,040 --> 00:55:35,800 in the language network in the left. 796 00:55:35,800 --> 00:55:41,840 So we're planning to do those who study, so we have patients with a left hemisphere lesions 797 00:55:41,840 --> 00:55:47,760 in the MCA regions, but also with the right hemisphere lesions. 798 00:55:47,760 --> 00:55:53,520 So I think that would be maybe nice to have a little bit of sample of stroke patients 799 00:55:53,520 --> 00:55:58,200 who have both lesions, but one sample has been left and the other has been the right, 800 00:55:58,200 --> 00:56:01,200 and then the ability to affect the language network. 801 00:56:01,200 --> 00:56:06,760 Well, that'll be interesting, because I mean, we really understudy right hemisphere strokes 802 00:56:06,760 --> 00:56:08,080 for their language. 803 00:56:08,080 --> 00:56:12,960 I mean, I don't think they don't have frank aphasia by and large, but I still wish that we 804 00:56:12,960 --> 00:56:15,720 could know more about them. 805 00:56:15,720 --> 00:56:21,720 Yeah, and so I think that's a new project for this starting now, so for the future. 806 00:56:21,720 --> 00:56:27,040 Okay, so this paper is probably, I know it's a pre-print, it's probably under review, how 807 00:56:27,040 --> 00:56:33,080 are you going to get it through over the line with your first author heading off into industry 808 00:56:33,080 --> 00:56:34,080 job? 809 00:56:34,080 --> 00:56:43,320 Yeah, he is very helpful, he will continue working on the papers that were submitted now, 810 00:56:43,320 --> 00:56:45,920 or that are submitted. 811 00:56:45,920 --> 00:56:53,920 Yeah, I think at the moment, the limitation of the paper is currently that it's a smaller 812 00:56:53,920 --> 00:56:59,920 sample, but at the other hand, we use a very sensitive approach where you really have 813 00:56:59,920 --> 00:57:06,840 individual activation patterns, so I think that composes a bit, and I think the fact that 814 00:57:06,840 --> 00:57:11,400 we can now extend the findings of a red-pore-in-boulder adults and also to a person's with 815 00:57:11,400 --> 00:57:12,400 Aphasia. 816 00:57:12,400 --> 00:57:19,240 I think it's a nice finding or something important to share with the search for. 817 00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:21,600 Personally, I don't think the sample size is too small. 818 00:57:21,600 --> 00:57:24,400 I think it was well-powered. 819 00:57:24,400 --> 00:57:28,640 If there was going to be an effect, you should have been able to see it. 820 00:57:28,640 --> 00:57:33,960 If there was going to be any effect worth getting excited about, I don't feel that that's 821 00:57:33,960 --> 00:57:35,960 the major limitation. 822 00:57:35,960 --> 00:57:39,560 Do you have any other follow-ups apart from your writer looking at right-hemisphere 823 00:57:39,560 --> 00:57:40,560 stroke? 824 00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:43,000 We do a lot. 825 00:57:43,000 --> 00:57:48,320 Yeah, I think most of my research now, the new research project, what we aim to do there 826 00:57:48,320 --> 00:57:54,560 is to look with more functional neuroimaging, but more naturalistic paradigms, because 827 00:57:54,560 --> 00:57:58,520 I have the feeling with the kids, but also with persons with aphasia, often you're a bit 828 00:57:58,520 --> 00:58:03,160 restricted in what you can test, so often that it's structural MRI because then they 829 00:58:03,160 --> 00:58:05,440 don't need to do the task. 830 00:58:05,440 --> 00:58:10,120 So because it's difficult to do very complex tasks in these populations like young children 831 00:58:10,120 --> 00:58:13,120 or persons with aphasia. 832 00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:17,240 And I think now with this new trend to naturalistic paradigms, I feel that then the shift is not 833 00:58:17,240 --> 00:58:22,120 to, it's not a complex paradigm, so also young children and person's with aphasia can do 834 00:58:22,120 --> 00:58:27,000 these paradigms, but it's of course more complex to analyze the data, but I feel with the 835 00:58:27,000 --> 00:58:33,640 new analyzed techniques that are available, we can then also look at specific language 836 00:58:33,640 --> 00:58:38,440 processes, for example, more phonological aspects, some more semantics, and it's already in 837 00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:43,200 one paradigm, so I think there's both in the young kids and in person with aphasia, I 838 00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:50,160 do know a lot of both with EEG and MRI on the more naturalistic paradigms, and then with 839 00:58:50,160 --> 00:58:55,680 the coding analysis, you can link the neural responses to features that are within the story, 840 00:58:55,680 --> 00:59:00,520 they have listened to, so I think that is a bit of a new direction for me because I feel 841 00:59:00,520 --> 00:59:05,760 it's feasible to acquire these data in these difficult populations, and I get a bit 842 00:59:05,760 --> 00:59:12,320 more specific information on the function of language, so otherwise with the structural 843 00:59:12,320 --> 00:59:15,080 measures, it's always very indirect. 844 00:59:15,080 --> 00:59:24,440 Yeah, yeah, no, I mean functional is, yeah, functional is where it's at, right, for this 845 00:59:24,440 --> 00:59:32,080 population, knowing what's going on with the surviving brain areas is maybe more important 846 00:59:32,080 --> 00:59:37,840 than being exactly cataloging what areas were damaged. 847 00:59:37,840 --> 00:59:42,720 That's really interesting that you're wanting to do that naturalistic and decoding and stuff, 848 00:59:42,720 --> 00:59:48,480 I'm also very interested in that as a new direction, so I think a lot of us are probably 849 00:59:48,480 --> 00:59:54,400 seeing all the developments in natural language processing, and then just seeing the success 850 00:59:54,400 --> 01:00:00,040 of some of our colleagues who've had with these techniques in healthy controls like last 851 01:00:00,040 --> 01:00:06,960 year, I think I talked with Alex Huth and Jean-Remi King on the podcast about both of 852 01:00:06,960 --> 01:00:13,760 them using similar approaches, and we've got a lot of interest in like, you know, porting 853 01:00:13,760 --> 01:00:19,000 those approaches over into the aphasia world, so it's going to be great to see what kinds 854 01:00:19,000 --> 01:00:20,000 of that. 855 01:00:20,000 --> 01:00:25,640 It feels like a very exciting direction to go with this, it's rapidly changing, and I think 856 01:00:25,640 --> 01:00:32,080 a lot of things become possible, and I think it will help us to be more exciting, the 857 01:00:32,080 --> 01:00:34,320 more difficult populations to do that. 858 01:00:34,320 --> 01:00:39,520 Yeah, let's go to that advantage of being kind of like more approachable for the participants, 859 01:00:39,520 --> 01:00:40,520 right? 860 01:00:40,520 --> 01:00:44,480 Like if you're not asking into the complex tasks, they can just get in the scanner and listen 861 01:00:44,480 --> 01:00:49,960 to a podcast or watch a movie or whatever, and as you said, you can analyze the data 862 01:00:49,960 --> 01:00:54,600 at multiple levels at once from the same data set, you can be looking at phonology or semantics 863 01:00:54,600 --> 01:00:57,400 or syntax or however you code it. 864 01:00:57,400 --> 01:01:01,520 And so I think for the participants, it's easier for the researcher, it's more complex 865 01:01:01,520 --> 01:01:07,280 for the analyzer, more complex, but I think it's definitely a good approach for, in difficult 866 01:01:07,280 --> 01:01:09,000 to test populations. 867 01:01:09,000 --> 01:01:12,640 Yeah, cool, well that's a great new direction. 868 01:01:12,640 --> 01:01:18,080 Okay, well, I guess I should let you get to your day. 869 01:01:18,080 --> 01:01:24,920 For me, it's dinner time, but for you, it's probably time to get to work and you know. 870 01:01:24,920 --> 01:01:32,160 Well, I have a good balance with Pieter, so it's not really, so I'll put you nice to look 871 01:01:32,160 --> 01:01:33,160 forward to it. 872 01:01:33,160 --> 01:01:40,280 Okay, well, tell him, congratulations from me on a beautiful paper that's, I think really 873 01:01:40,280 --> 01:01:44,400 it really provides a very clear evidence on a question that a lot of people are interested 874 01:01:44,400 --> 01:01:47,360 in, so yeah, it's a great paper. 875 01:01:47,360 --> 01:01:48,360 I agree. 876 01:01:48,360 --> 01:01:53,440 Yeah, okay, well, it was very nice to talk to you. 877 01:01:53,440 --> 01:01:54,920 Thanks for taking the time. 878 01:01:54,920 --> 01:01:56,920 Yeah, many thanks for having me. 879 01:01:56,920 --> 01:01:59,840 It's a nice experience, it's my set. 880 01:01:59,840 --> 01:02:00,840 Yeah, good. 881 01:02:00,840 --> 01:02:02,920 I think that's a bit of a use too. 882 01:02:02,920 --> 01:02:08,920 Yeah, yeah, there's not a lot of podcasts about the neuroscience of language. (Laughter) 883 01:02:08,920 --> 01:02:15,640 All right, well, I hope to catch up with you at a future conference. 884 01:02:15,640 --> 01:02:19,880 Okay, thank you and look forward to see you on the next conference. 885 01:02:19,880 --> 01:02:21,480 Okay, take care, bye. 886 01:02:21,480 --> 01:02:22,480 Bye-bye. 887 01:02:22,480 --> 01:02:29,720 All right, well, that's it for episode 30. 888 01:02:29,720 --> 01:02:33,360 Thank you, Maaike, for joining me on the podcast, and thank you all for listening. 889 01:02:33,360 --> 01:02:37,080 I'd like to acknowledge the support of the journal, Neurobiology of Language, who have 890 01:02:37,080 --> 01:02:39,800 kindly covered part of the cost of transcription. 891 01:02:39,800 --> 01:02:43,040 We just got a nice revised and resume on the fifth paper my lab has submitted to this 892 01:02:43,040 --> 01:02:44,040 journal. 893 01:02:44,040 --> 01:02:47,600 Just like on all of our previous submissions, we got thoughtful, constructive reviews 894 01:02:47,600 --> 01:02:52,000 from well-chosen reviewers who clearly have deep relevant expertise and actually care about 895 01:02:52,000 --> 01:02:53,320 making our paper better. 896 01:02:53,320 --> 01:02:55,920 I'd encourage everyone to consider submitting your work there. 897 01:02:55,920 --> 01:02:57,280 It's a great journal. 898 01:02:57,280 --> 01:03:01,280 Thanks also to Marcia Petyt for editing the transcript of this episode. 899 01:03:01,280 --> 01:03:02,280 Bye for now. 900 01:03:02,280 --> 01:03:02,760 See you next time. 901 01:03:02,760 --> 01:03:13,160 [Music]