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.
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.
Neuroimage. 2020 Jun;213:116722. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116722. Epub 2020 Mar 7.
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.
学习阅读会导致与视觉和语言相关的皮质大脑区域的功能和结构发生变化。先前的证据表明，视觉词形区（VWFA）是一个专门用于识别有文化者的字母串的区域，它充当了两个系统之间的接口。虽然不同的研究已经进行了单变量分析来研究文化程度对大脑功能的影响，但对于其对整个功能网络的影响知之甚少，尤其是在成年后获得文化程度时。我们研究了具有不同文化程度的三组成年人的功能连接：文盲、脱盲者（即成年后学习阅读的人）和识字者（即童年时学习阅读的人）。我们使用了一种数据驱动的、多变量的全脑方法（独立成分分析 [ICA]），结合感兴趣区域（ROI）分析，以探索 VWFA 与四个与视觉和语言功能相关的 ICA 网络的功能连接。ICA 允许识别四个感兴趣的网络：左额顶、听觉、内侧视觉和外侧视觉功能网络，以及一个右侧额顶控制网络。我们探索了文化程度对 VWFA 与这些网络之间连接的影响，试图进一步区分阅读熟练度和获得年龄（即文化程度状态）在这些变化中的作用。结果表明，VWFA 与左额顶和外侧视觉网络之间的功能连接分别随文化程度的增加和减少而增加和减少。此外，VWFA 与听觉网络的功能耦合随文化程度的降低而降低。这项研究为阅读习得和大脑可塑性的机制提供了新的见解，揭示了 VWFA 作为语言和视觉之间桥梁的出现。需要进一步的研究来描述阅读熟练度和获得年龄的相互作用，及其与整个生命周期大脑可塑性模型的相关性。
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