Michel Thiebaut de Schotten|Laurence Cohen|Eduardo Amemiya|Lúcia Willadino Braga|Stanislas Dehaene
Learning to Read Improves the Structure of the Arcuate Fasciculus
Sorbonne Université|Institut du Cerveau|King's College London|French National Centre for Scientific Research|Sorbonne Université|Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital|Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris|Institut du Cerveau|Inserm|Sarah Network of Rehabilitation Hospitals|Sarah Network of Rehabilitation Hospitals|Inserm|Cognitive Neuroimaging Lab|Collège de France|University of Paris-Sud|Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission
acquisition literacy results effortful learning process leads functional changes several cortical regions explored whether learning read also leads anatomical changes within left intrahemispheric white matter pathways interconnect regions using diffusion tensor imaging tractography compared illiterates exilliterates learned read adulthood literates learned read childhood literacy related increase fractional anisotropy decrease perpendicular diffusivity temporoparietal portion left arcuate fasciculus microstructure within pathway correlated reading performance degree functional activation within 2 dominant brain regions involved reading visual word form area response letter strings posterior superior temporal cortex response spoken language thus acquisition literacy associated reinforcement left temporoparietal connections whose microstructure predicts overall reading performance functional specialization visual word form area anatomical magnetic resonance imaging marker may useful predict developmental reading disorders