Author Identifier (ORCID)
Desiree Silva: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4454-466X
Abstract
Little is known about how or when language and visuospatial processing lateralise in the brain, and if individual differences in lateralisation are related to early language or visuospatial abilities. We explored if patterns of language and visuospatial lateralisation are related to cognitive skills in young children. A large sample of 3-year-olds (n = 136) attempted two functional transcranial Doppler ultrasound (fTCD) tasks to estimate language and visuospatial lateralisation. At the group level, language was lateralised to the left hemisphere, but visuospatial processing was weakly lateralised to the right hemisphere. The relationship between patterns of lateralisation and cognitive skills was investigated using regression analyses with novel calculations of how typical a child's lateralisation pattern was, the degree of crowding of both functions to one hemisphere, or how strongly both functions were lateralised. Language and visuospatial abilities were not predicted by any of these measures. Degree of visuospatial lateralisation, and not language lateralisation, was associated with higher language ability. Future research should investigate if patterns of lateralisation are related to cognitive skills in older children, when lateralisation is more established.
Keywords
Children, fTCD, language, lateralisation, visuospatial
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
6-6-2026
Volume
226
PubMed ID
41850594
Publication Title
Neuropsychologia
Publisher
Elsevier
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
Funders
Australian Research Council / Telethon Perth Children’s Hospital Research Fund / Joondalup Health Campus / Paul Ramsay Foundation / Commonwealth Government of Australia through the Channel 7 Telethon Trust / National Health and Medical Research Council (). JQC is supported by anAustralian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Offset under Grant 10306140.
Grant Number
ARC Number : DP160101174, NHMRC Number : 1173896
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Comments
Quin-Conroy, J. E., Bayliss, D. M., Bovell, S. J., Eamer, D., Earl, G. H., Fisher, S. E., Francks, C., Maybery, M. T., Pillar, S., Silva, D., Whitehouse, A. J., & Badcock, N. A. (2026). Patterns of language and visuospatial lateralisation in three-year-old children. Neuropsychologia, 226, 109434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2026.109434