Impact of literacy on the functional connectivity of vision and language related networks
Diana López-Barroso,
Michel Thiebaut de Schotten,
José Morais,
Régine Kolinsky,
Lucia W. Braga,
Alexandre Guerreiro-Tauil,
Stanislas Dehaene,
Laurent Cohen
Affiliations
Diana López-Barroso
Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, F-75013, Paris, France; Cognitive Neurology and Aphasia Unit, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga (IBIMA), Málaga, Spain; Area of Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology and Speech Therapy, University of Malaga, Málaga, Spain; Corresponding author. Cognitive Neurology and Aphasia Unit, Centro de Investigaciones Médico-Sanitarias, University of Malaga, Malaga, Spain.
Michel Thiebaut de Schotten
Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, F-75013, Paris, France; Brain Connectivity and Behaviour Laboratory, Sorbonne Universities, Paris, France; Groupe d’Imagerie Neurofonctionnelle, Institut des Maladies Neurodégénératives-UMR 5293, CNRS, CEA University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France
José Morais
Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (UNESCOG), Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), CP 191, Avenue F. Roosevelt, 50, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium
Régine Kolinsky
Unité de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives (UNESCOG), Center for Research in Cognition and Neurosciences (CRCN), Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), CP 191, Avenue F. Roosevelt, 50, B-1050, Brussels, Belgium; Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique-FNRS, Rue d’Egmont, 5, B-1000, Brussels, Belgium
Lucia W. Braga
SARAH Network, International Center for Neurosciences and Rehabilitation, 71.535-005, Brasilia, Brazil
Alexandre Guerreiro-Tauil
SARAH Network, International Center for Neurosciences and Rehabilitation, 71.535-005, Brasilia, Brazil
Stanislas Dehaene
Collège de France, 11 Place Marcelin Berthelot, 75005, Paris, France; INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, NeuroSpin Center, Gif sur Yvette, 91191, France; Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Direction des Sciences du Vivant, Institut Frédéric Joliot, Neurospin Center, Gif sur Yvette, 91191, France; Université Paris-Sud 11, 91405, Orsay, France
Laurent Cohen
Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, F-75013, Paris, France; Assistance Publique Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière, Department of Neurology, F-75013, Paris, France
Learning to read leads to functional and structural changes in cortical brain areas related to vision and language. Previous evidence suggests that the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA), a region devoted to the recognition of letter strings in literate persons, acts as an interface between both systems. While different studies have performed univariate analyses to study the effects of literacy on brain function, little is known about its impact on whole functional networks, especially when literacy is acquired during adulthood. We investigated functional connectivity in three groups of adults with different literacy status: illiterates, ex-illiterates (i.e., who learned to read during adulthood), and literates (i.e., who learned to read in childhood). We used a data-driven, multivariate whole brain approach (Independent Component Analysis [ICA]) combined with a region of interest (ROI) analysis in order to explore the functional connectivity of the VWFA with four ICA networks related to vision and language functions. ICA allowed for the identification of four networks of interest: left fronto-parietal, auditory, medial visual and lateral visual functional networks, plus a control right fronto-parietal network. We explored the effects literacy on the connectivity between the VWFA and these networks, trying furthermore to disentangle the roles of reading proficiency and age of acquisition (i.e., literacy status) in these changes. Results showed that functional connectivity between the VWFA and the left fronto-parietal and lateral visual networks increased and decreased, respectively, with literacy. Moreover, the functional coupling of the VWFA and the auditory network decreased with literacy. This study provides novel insights in the mechanisms of reading acquisition and brain plasticity, putting to light the emergence of the VWFA as a bridge between language and vision. Further studies are required to characterize the interplay of proficiency and age of reading acquisition, and its relevance to models of brain plasticity across lifespan.
