Transcranial Photobiomodulation Over the Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus Reveals a Tendency of Enhancing Sentence Processing Ability in School‐Age Children

ABSTRACT This study employed transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM), a non‐invasive neuromodulation technology, to regulate cellular respiration and metabolism in language‐related brain regions, aiming to enhance the sentence processing abilities of typically developing children. A within‐subject design was utilized with participants undergoing both active and sham tPBM sessions. The tPBM protocol used a wavelength of 1064 nm and an irradiance dosage of 150 mW/cm 2 , targeting the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG). The findings demonstrated that tPBM significantly enhanced sentence processing performance. Furthermore, sentence processing in children showed tPBM‐induced enhancement that was marginally associated with improvements in verbal working memory, potentially exhibiting a developmental link between WM and syntactic processing. This study is a groundbreaking attempt to utilize tPBM as a safe and child‐friendly tool to improve language‐related cognitive abilities in school‐age children, suggesting promising applications in clinical and educational settings, especially for those with language disorders.