Topic: arcuate fasciculus

The utilization of language distinguishes humans uniquely within the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, due to dogs evolving in parallel with humans, their brains have undergone positive selection, enabling them to comprehend human language to a certain extent. This divergence sets them apart in the animal kingdom, marking a distinction from non-human primates. Our hypothesis posits that dogs have independently developed a white matter pathway connecting cortical areas associated with vocal perception to higher brain regions responsible for generating suitable responses to human vocal communication

Preterm (PT) birth is associated with impaired verbal fluency [1] and verbal processing speed [2]. Interestingly, white matter microstructural alterations in the arcuate fasciculus (AF), superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), uncinate fasciculus (UF), and inferior frontooccipital fasciculus (IFOF) -tracts, which are suggested to subserve language ability [3] - have been found in PT-born children [4]. We hypothesized that microstructural alterations of these tracts link with verbal fluency and verbal processing speed impairments in PT-born adults.Sixty-three PT- and eighty-one term-born (FT) a