Language laterality and cognitive skills: does anatomy matter?

Andrulyte, Ieva, Zago, Laure, Jobard, Gael, Lemaitre, Herve, Branzi, Francesca M ORCID: 0000-0002-3780-9693, Rheault, Francois, Petit, Laurent and Keller, Simon S ORCID: 0000-0001-5247-9795 (2026) Language laterality and cognitive skills: does anatomy matter? CEREBRAL CORTEX, 36 (6). bhag067-. ISSN 1047-3211, 1460-2199

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Abstract

Brain anatomy, particularly white matter microstructure, is thought to play a critical role in the relationships between cognitive function and language lateralisation. This study investigates whether white matter microstructural parameters of the arcuate fasciculus and corpus callosum is associated with cognitive performance across distinct language lateralisation groups. Neuroimaging and cognitive data from 279 healthy adults were sourced from the BIL&GIN database. Participants completed a sentence production functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) task, diffusion MRI, and cognitive tasks assessing verbal, visuospatial, and arithmetic skills. Significant positive associations were observed in strongly atypical individuals between fractional anisotropy in the splenium and working memory (R² = 0.96, pFDR = 0.042) and between fractional anisotropy (FA) in the genu and visuospatial attention (R² = 0.92, pFDR = 0.042). ANCOVA revealed that cross-dominant individuals had significantly lower visuospatial attention scores compared to consistently lateralized individuals (pFDR = 0.02). These findings challenge the notion that atypical lateralisation is inherently maladaptive and suggest that white matter pathways may serve as an alternative mechanism for supporting cognitive function in individuals with rightward language dominance. Furthermore, the results highlight the cognitive disadvantages of crossed dominance, implicating disrupted interhemispheric communication as a potential underlying mechanism.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	arcuate fasciculus, cognitive function, corpus callosum, diffusion MRI, language lateralisation, white matter
Divisions:	Faculty of Health & Life Sciences Faculty of Health & Life Sciences > Inst. Population Health Faculty of Health & Life Sciences > Inst. Population Health > Psychology Faculty of Health & Life Sciences > Inst. Population Health > Inst. Population Health (T&R Staff) Faculty of Health & Life Sciences > Inst. Systems, Molec & Integrative Biology Faculty of Health & Life Sciences > Inst. Systems, Molec & Integrative Biology > Inst. Systems, Molec & Integrative Biology (T&R Staff) Faculty of Health & Life Sciences > Inst. Systems, Molec & Integrative Biology > Pharmacology & Therapeutics
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	29 Jun 2026 16:29
Last Modified:	20 Jul 2026 13:06
DOI:	10.1093/cercor/bhag067
Open Access URL:	https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/36/6/bhag0...
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3199212
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