Auditory Cortex Asymmetry Associations with Individual Differences in Language and Cognition

A longstanding cerebral lateralization hypothesis predicts that disrupted development of typical leftward structural asymmetry of auditory cortex explains why children have problems learning to read. Small sample sizes and small effects, potential sex-specific effects, and associations that are limited to specific dimensions of language are thought to have contributed inconsistent results. The large ABCD study dataset (baseline visit: N = 11,859) was used to test the hypothesis of significant associations between surface area asymmetry of auditory cortex and receptive vocabulary performance across boys and girls, as well as an oral word reading effect that was specific to boys. The results provide modest support (Cohen’s d effect sizes ≤ 0.10) for the cerebral lateralization hypothesis.