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- Title
Illiterate to literate: behavioural and cerebral changes induced by reading acquisition.
- Authors
Dehaene, Stanislas; Cohen, Laurent; Morais, José; Kolinsky, Régine
- Abstract
The acquisition of literacy transforms the human brain. By reviewing studies of illiterate subjects, we propose specific hypotheses on how the functions of core brain systems are partially reoriented or 'recycled' when learning to read. Literacy acquisition improves early visual processing and reorganizes the ventral occipito-temporal pathway: responses to written characters are increased in the left occipito-temporal sulcus, whereas responses to faces shift towards the right hemisphere. Literacy also modifies phonological coding and strengthens the functional and anatomical link between phonemic and graphemic representations. Literacy acquisition therefore provides a remarkable example of how the brain reorganizes to accommodate a novel cultural skill.
- Subjects
LITERACY; ILLITERATE persons; READING ability testing; READING readiness; PHYSIOLOGICAL aspects of reading; READING; PHYSIOLOGY; PSYCHOLOGY
- Publication
Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 2015, Vol 16, Issue 4, p234
- ISSN
1471-003X
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1038/nrn3924