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The BRight Side: Understanding the role of the Brain’s Right hemisphere for language development in autism

Project description

Understanding language development in autism

Advancements in medical technologies have enhanced our understanding of the human brain and the complex processes crucial to its function and development. However, despite these breakthroughs, many aspects of brain function and their impact on development remain poorly understood. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the BRight project aims to deepen this knowledge by investigating the role of alternative right-hemispheric pathways in language development in autism. Specifically, it will explore the increased involvement of the right hemisphere and examine whether this contributes to language deficits or serves as a compensatory network supporting successful language development. The findings could significantly improve our understanding of language processing in autism and open new avenues for intervention strategies.

Objective

BRight will investigate alternative right-hemispheric pathways for language development in autism. While language is especially left-lateralized in the typically developing brain, there is increased right-hemispheric involvement in autism. It is unclear whether these right-hemispheric neural pathways contribute to language deficits or if they form a potential compensatory network, facilitating an alternative route for successful language development. This is especially interesting to examine in the preschool age as language abilities are at their most variable and intervention strategies at their most effective. BRight has four objectives: 1) characterize typically developing neural pathways for language in the left and right hemisphere; 2) compare individua neural pathways of autistic preschoolers to the typically developing children; 3) relate right hemisphere variables to a preschool battery of language assessments; 4) longitudinally examine preschool neural variation to school-age language abilities. BRight will achieve this by collaborating with an existing research consortium that studied autistic preschoolers using MRI and by adding a new time point to examine these children now that they are at the school age. BRight will overcome previous limitations like an overreliance on isolated brain measures and a dependence on group-level analyses that cannot capture the heterogeneity of the autism spectrum by employing novel data fusion and normative modeling approaches. By integrating across multiple brain measures (including structural MRI, diffusion MRI and resting-state fMRI). The highly interdisciplinary approach taken in BRight will fundamentally impact our understanding of brain-behavioral correlations and the neural foundation of language in autism. The project will have significant impact on the researcher’s career as she will receive rigorous training in cutting-edge neuroimaging and statistical techniques from leading experts in the field.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

STICHTING RADBOUD UNIVERSITAIR MEDISCH CENTRUM
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 217 076,16
Address
GEERT GROOTEPLEIN 10 ZUID
6525 GA NIJMEGEN
Netherlands

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Region
Oost-Nederland Gelderland Arnhem/Nijmegen
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

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