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Towards a universal neurobiological architecture for learning to read

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2012

Marcin Szwed ,
Fabien Vinckier ,
Laurent Cohen  and
Stanislas Dehaene
Marcin Szwed
Affiliation:
Zakład Psychofizjologii, Instytut Psychologii (Department of Psychophysiology, Institute of Psychology), Jagiellonian University, 31120 Kraków, Poland. mfszwed@gmail.com Département de Psychologie, Aix-Marseille Université, 13284 Marseille, France. mfszwed@gmail.com Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS, UMR 6146, 13284 Marseille, France. mfszwed@gmail.com
Fabien Vinckier
Affiliation:
Faculté de Médecine Pitié-Salpêtrière, IFR 70, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (University of Paris 6), 75013 Paris, France. fabien.vinckier@gmail.comlaurent.cohen@psl.ap-hop-paris.fr Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, UMRS 975, 75013 Paris, France. fabien.vinckier@gmail.comlaurent.cohen@psl.ap-hop-paris.fr
Laurent Cohen
Affiliation:
Faculté de Médecine Pitié-Salpêtrière, IFR 70, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (University of Paris 6), 75013 Paris, France. fabien.vinckier@gmail.comlaurent.cohen@psl.ap-hop-paris.fr Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, UMRS 975, 75013 Paris, France. fabien.vinckier@gmail.comlaurent.cohen@psl.ap-hop-paris.fr Departament de Neurologie, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, and Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, 75651 Paris, France. laurent.cohen@psl.ap-hop-paris.fr
Stanislas Dehaene
Affiliation:
Collège de France, 75005 Paris, France. stanislas.dehaene@cea.fr Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France. stanislas.dehaene@cea.frwww.unicog.org Division of Life Sciences, Institute of Bioimaging, Neurospin, Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique, 91191 Gif sur Yvette, France. stanislas.dehaene@cea.fr Université Paris 11, 91405 Orsay, France. stanislas.dehaene@cea.fr
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Abstract

Letter-position tolerance varies across languages. This observation suggests that the neural code for letter strings may also be subtly different. Although language-specific models remain useful, we should endeavor to develop a universal model of reading acquisition which incorporates crucial neurobiological constraints. Such a model, through a progressive internalization of phonological and lexical regularities, could perhaps converge onto the language-specific properties outlined by Frost.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 35 , Issue 5 , October 2012 , pp. 308 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012 

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