Verb generation in children with spina bifida.

Authors

Maureen Dennis, Program in Neurosciences & Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
Derryn Jewell, Program in Neurosciences & Mental Health, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario
Ross Hetherington, AboutKidsHealth, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario, , Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
Christine Burton, Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario
Michael E. Brandt, Center for Computational Biomedicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas
Susan E. Blaser, Department of Radiology, The Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Ontario
Jack M Fletcher, Department of Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, Texas

Publication Date

3-1-2008

Journal

J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2008 March; 14(2): 181–191.

Abstract

We investigated verb generation in children with spina bifida meningomyelocele (SBM; n = 55) and in typically developing controls (n = 32). Participants completed 6 blocks (40 trials each) of a task requiring them to produce a semantically related verb in response to a target noun and an additional 40 trials on which they were simply required to read target nouns aloud. After controlling for reading response time, groups did not differ significantly in verb generation response time or learning. Children with SBM produced more non-verb errors than controls and tended to repeat their mistakes over blocks. Verb generation performance was associated with brain volume measures in participants with SBM. Congenital cerebellar dysmorphology is associated with impaired performance in verb generation accuracy, although not with increased response times to produce verbs

Keywords

Adolescent, Adult, Brain, Child, Female, Functional Laterality, Humans, Language, Male, Reaction Time, Reading, Spinal Dysraphism, Verbal Behavior

Comments

PMCID: PMC2592551