Funding boost to help researchers better understand how language develops

Telethon Kids Institute researchers have been awarded an Australian Research Council grant to explore how testosterone levels in the womb can impact on a child's future language development.

Lead investigator Professor Andrew Whitehouse said the $415,000 grant will help his team address a long hypothesised, but unsubstantiated, link between prenatal testosterone and language development.

"How the human brain develops to support child language is a big unanswered question in science," Professor Whitehouse said. "Evidence exists which suggests testosterone could play a part but we really don't know for sure."

"If our team can confirm this link, it will significantly benefit the fields of psychology, education and medicine, leading to optimal child development. It could also reveal pathways to developmental disorders like Autism."

Professor Whitehouse said the team would explore if testosterone in utero influenced brain lateralisation (whether language develops in the left of right hemisphere of the brain) in children.

"In 90 per cent of people, language function is controlled by the left side of the brain," Professor Whitehouse said. "However in approximately 10 per cent of people, language either develops from the right hemisphere or from both."

"We want to know if testosterone influences brain laterality, and in turn whether that developmental pathway is related to language development."

Researchers will use innovative neuroimaging, endocrine and genetic techniques for the study, tracking the neurodevelopment of babies in the womb until they are three years of age.

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