Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 6, 2026
08:05
Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques
Published on: June 30, 2020
How learning to read changes the cortical networks for vision and language.
Stanislas Dehaene1, Felipe Pegado, Lucia W Braga
1INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Gif sur Yvette 91191, France. stanislas.dehaene@gmail.com
Science (New York, N.Y.)
|November 13, 2010
Summary
Learning to read and write enhances brain function, particularly in visual processing areas. Even adult literacy acquisition significantly refines cortical organization and cognitive abilities.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Educational Psychology
Background:
- The impact of literacy on brain function is a key area of research.
- Understanding how reading acquisition shapes neural pathways is crucial for educational interventions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of literacy on brain function using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
- To determine if literacy acquisition, whether in childhood or adulthood, alters neural responses to various stimuli.
Main Methods:
- fMRI scans were conducted on adults with varying literacy levels (illiterate, adult-literate, childhood-literate).
- Brain responses were measured for spoken and written language, faces, houses, tools, and checkers.
Main Results:
- Literacy enhanced left fusiform activation for written language, with a minor competition for face recognition.
- Broad enhancement of visual responses in fusiform and occipital cortex, including V1, was observed.
- Phonological activation to speech in the planum temporale and top-down orthographic activation improved with literacy.
- These neural changes were evident even in individuals who acquired literacy in adulthood.
Conclusions:
- Literacy significantly refines cortical organization and enhances brain function.
- Both childhood and adult literacy acquisition profoundly impact neural plasticity and cognitive abilities.
- The brain demonstrates remarkable adaptability, integrating new skills like reading across the lifespan.
Related Concept Videos
01:27Language and Cognition
Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.
01:10Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language
Language is a system of communication that allows the expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The brain processes language in both hemispheres.
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...
01:14Motor and Sensory Areas of the Cortex
The cerebral cortex, the brain's outermost layer, is pivotal in processing complex cognitive tasks, emotions, and various sensory inputs and executing voluntary motor activities. This intricate structure is divided into three primary functional areas: the motor areas, sensory areas, and association areas.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.
Motor Areas
The motor areas located in the frontal lobe are central to controlling voluntary movements. This region is further subdivided into the primary motor cortex and the premotor cortex.
01:01Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity reflects the brain's remarkable capacity to adapt and evolve, responding dynamically to learning, experiences, or injury by reorganizing its neural circuitry. This reorganization involves creating new neural connections and refining old ones through a series of biological processes that contribute to the brain's lifelong development and adaptability.
01:24Vision
Vision is the result of light being detected and transduced into neural signals by the retina of the eye. This information is then further analyzed and interpreted by the brain. First, light enters the front of the eye and is focused by the cornea and lens onto the retina—a thin sheet of neural tissue lining the back of the eye. Because of refraction through the convex lens of the eye, images are projected onto the retina upside-down and reversed.
01:22Language Development
Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...