Learning to read changes the cortical networks for vision and verbal language

Abstract

This paper is an adaptation of the first part of Stanislas Dehaene’s lecture delivered on July 13, 2012, at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. The effects of learning to read on the cortical networks which process oral language are described after experimentally observing literates and ex-illiterates adults, altogether with the observation of what happens in the left occipitotemporal ventral region of children learning to read. Subtle anomalies provoked by genes migration among dyslexics are also mentioned.