Karl Magnus Petersson|Carla Silva|Alexandre Castro?Caldas|Martin Ingvar|Alexandra Reis
Literacy: a cultural influence on functional left–right differences in the inferior parietal cortex
Radboud University Nijmegen|Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics|University of Algarve|Karolinska Institutet|University of Algarve|Universidade Católica Portuguesa|University of Algarve|Karolinska Institutet|Karolinska Institutet|University of Algarve
current understanding hemispheric interaction limited functional hemispheric specialization likely depend genetic environmental factors present study investigated importance one factor literacy functional lateralization inferior parietal cortex two independent samples literate illiterate subjects results show illiterate group consistently rightlateralized literate controls contrast two groups showed similar degree leftright differences early speechrelated regions superior temporal cortex results provide evidence suggesting cultural factor literacy influences functional hemispheric balance reading verbal working memoryrelated regions third sample investigated grey white matter voxelbased morphometry results showed differences literacy groups white matter intensities related midbody region corpus callosum inferior parietal parietotemporal regions literateilliterate corresponding differences grey matter suggests influence literacy brain structure related reading verbal working memory affecting largescale brain connectivity grey matter per se