Literacy as a determining factor for brain organization: from Lecours' contribution to the present day

Parente, Maria Alice de Mattos Pimenta; Fonseca, Rochele Paz; Scherer, Lilian Cristine

doi:10.1590/S1980-57642009DN20300002

Abstracts

Abstract - This review aimed to discuss the influence of literacy and formal education on human brain organization, based on evidence drawn from three sources: (1) results and limitations of a project coordinated by André Roch Lecours on the influence of illiteracy on brain organization and of studies on aphasia in illiterate populations; (2) data on the impact of schooling on the neuropsychological assessment of healthy and brain-damaged individuals, and (3) studies on the effect of schooling on dementia. These findings suggest that schooling and literacy processes influence cerebral organization of healthy individuals, as well as of brain-lesion individuals and those with dementia. Concerning illiteracy, the systematic pioneering studies developed by Lecours and the continuity of his investigations were essential to alert the scientific and clinical communities to take into account the role of educational experience on cognitive processing and its brain substrates.

Key words:
literacy; education; human cognition.

Resumo - Esta revisão tem por objetivo discutir a influência da alfabetização e da educação formal na organização do cérebro humano, com base em evidências aportadas por três fontes: (1) resultados e limitações de um projeto coordenado por André Roch Lecours sobre a influência do analfabetismo na organização cerebral e de estudos sobre afasia em populações analfabetas; (2) dados sobre o impacto da escolaridade na avaliação neuropsicológica de indivíduos saudáveis e com lesão cerebral, e (3) estudos sobre o efeito da escolaridade na demência. Tais achados sugerem que processos de escolaridade influenciam a organização cerebral de indivíduos saudáveis, bem como a de indivíduos com lesão cerebral e com quadro de demência. Com relação ao analfabetismo, os estudos sistemáticos pioneiros de Lecours, bem como a continuidade de suas investigações, foram essenciais para alertar as comunidades científicas e clínicas quanto à necessidade de considerarem o papel da experiência educacional no processamento cognitivo e em seus substratos cerebrais.

Palavras-chave:
alfabetização; educação; cognição humana.

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References

¹
Lecours AR, Mehler J, Parente MAMP. et al. Illiteracy and brain damage: aphasia testing in culturally contrated population. Neuropsychologia 1987;25:231-245.
²
Lecours AR, Mehler J, Parente MAMP. Illiteracy in brain damage: a contribution to the study of speech and language disorders in illiterates with brain damage. Neuropsychologia 1988;104:98-108.
³
Parente MAMP, Lecours AR. Participação do hemisfério direito na recuperação das afasias de analfabetos. Neuropsychologia Latina 1998;4:73-78.
⁴
O'Bryant SE, Humphreys JD, Smith GE, et al. Detecting dementia with the Mini mental state examination in highly educated individuals. Arch Neurol 2008;65:963-967.
⁵
Zunzunegui MV, Cuadra PG, Beâ LF, Ser T, Wolfson, C. Development of simple cognitive function measures in a community dwelling population of elderly in Spain. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2000;15:130-140.
⁶
Critchley M. Premorbid literacy and the pattern of subsequent aphasia. Proc Soc Med 1956;49:335-336.
⁷
Weber E. Das schreiben als ursache de einseitigen lage des sprachzentrums. Zentralblatte als Physiologie 1904;18:341-347.
⁸
Gorlitzer von Mundy V. Zur frage des paarig veranlagten sprachzentren. Nervenarzt 1957;28:212-216.
⁹
Mételus J, Cathala HP, Aubry-Issartier A, Bodak A. Une observation d´aphasie chez une illetrée (analphabète) concourant au langage. Ann Med Psychol 1981;139:992-001.
¹⁰
Wechsler AF. Crossed aphasia in an illiterate dextral. Brain Lang 1976;3:164-172.
¹¹
Cameron RF, Currier RD, Haerer AF. Aphasia and literacy. Br J Disord Commun 1971; 6:161-163.
¹²
Damasio AR, Castro-Caldas A, Grosso JT, Ferro, JM. Brain specialization for language does not depend on literacy. Arch Neurol 1976;33:300-301.
¹³
Castro-Caldas A, Reis A. Neurobiological substrates of illiteracy. Neuroscientist 2000;6:475-482.
¹⁴
Petersson K, Reis A, Askelöf S, Castro-Caldas A, Ingvar M. Language processing modulated by literacy: a network analysis of verbal repetition in literate and illiterate subjects. J Cogn Neurosci 2000;12:364-382.
¹⁵
Reis A, Petersson K. Educational level socioeconomic status and aphasia research: a comment on Connor et al. (2001) - effect socioeconomic status on aphasia severity and recovery. Brain Lang 2003;87:449-452.
¹⁶
Connor LT, Obler LK, Tocco M, Fitzpatrick PM, Albert ML. Effect of socio economic status on aphasia severity and recovery. Brain Lang 2001;78:254-257.
¹⁷
Castro-Caldas A, Peterson KM, Reis A, Stone-Elander S, Ingvar M. The illiterate brain: Learning to read and write during childhood influences the functional organization of the adult brain. Brain 1998;121:1053-1063.
¹⁸
Peterson KM, Reis A, Castro-Caldas A, Ingvar M. Effective auditory-verbal encoding activities the left prefrontal and the medial temporal lobes: A generalization to illiterate subjects. Neuroimage. 1999; 10:45-54.
¹⁹
Castro-Caldas A, Miranda Cavaleiro P, Carmo I, et al. Influence of learning to read and write on the morphology of the corpus callosum. Eur J Neurol 1999;6:23-28.
²⁰
Del Ser T, Haschinski V, Merskey H, Munoz DG. An autopsy-verified study of the effect of education on degenerative dementia. Brain 1999;122:2309-2319.
²¹
Ostrosky-Solís F, Ardila A, Rosselli M. NEUROPSI: a brief neuropsychological test battery in Spanish with norms by age and educational level. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 1999;5:413-433.
²²
Herrera-Guzmán I, Peña-Casanova J, Lara JP, Gudayol-Ferré E, Böhm P. Influence of age, sex, and education on the Visual Object and Space Perception Battery (VOSP) in a healthy normal elderly population. Clin Neuropsychol 2004;18:385-394.
²³
Ardila A, Ostrosky-Solis F, Rosselli, M, Gómez C. Age-related cognitive decline during normal aging: the complex effect of education. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 2000;15:495-513.
²⁴
Evrard M. Ageing and lexical access to common and proper names in picture naming. Brain Lang 2002;81:174-179.
²⁵
Côté H, Moix V, Giroux F. Évaluation des troubles de la communication des cérébrolésés droits. Rééducation Orthophonique 2004;219:107-122.
²⁶
Bertolucci PHF, Brucki SMD, Campacci S, Juliano Y. [The Mini-Mental State Examination in a general population: impact of educational status]. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 1994;52:1-7.
²⁷
Rami L, Serradell M, Bosch B, et al. Normative data for the Boston Naming Test and the Pyramids and Palm Trees Test in the elderly Spanish population', J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2008;30:1-6.
²⁸
Fonseca RP, Joanette Y, Ska B, Giroux F, Parente MAMP. Age and education effects on adults performance in the Bateria Montreal de Avaliação da Comunicação - Bateria MAC. Paper presented at 2nd Meeting of the European Societies of Neuropsychology. Toulouse, France: Euronpsy 2006, 2006:83.
²⁹
Hassing L, Wahlin A, Bäckman L. Minimal influence of age, education, and gender on episodic memory functioning in very old age: a population-based study of nonagenarians. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 1998;27:75-87.
³⁰
Duong A, Giroux F, Tardif A, Ska B. The heterogeneity of picture-supported narratives in Alzheimer's disease. Brain Lang 2005;93:173-184.
³¹
Valdois S, Joanette Y, Poiussant A, Ska B, Dehaut F. Heterogeneity in the cognitive profile of normal elderly. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 1990;12:587-596.
³²
Ska B, Duong A. Communication, discourse et démence. Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil 2005;3:125-133.
³³
Kulaif T, Valle LER. Alternative to the stroop color-word test for illiterate individuals. Clin Neuropsychol 2008;22:73-83.
³⁴
Beausoleil N, Fortin R, Le Blanc B, Joanette Y. Unconstrained oral naming performance in right- and left-hemisphere-damaged individuals: When education overrides the lesion. Aphasiology 2003;17:143-158.
³⁵
Fonseca RP, Fachel JMG, Chaves, MLF, Liedtke FV, Parente MAMP. Right hemisphere damage: communication processing in adults evaluated by the Brazilian Protocole MEC - Bateria MAC. Dement Neuropsychol 2007;3:266-275.
³⁶
Soares, EC. Avaliação de linguagem em sujeitos adultos através do Teste MT Beta 86 Modificado: estudo piloto e aplicação em sujeitos afásicos. Dissertação. Universidade Federal de São Paulo: São Paulo; 2007.
³⁷
Poore QE, Rapport LJ, Fuerst DR, Keenan P. Word list generation performance in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 2006;13:86-94.
³⁸
Monetta L, Pell MD. Effects of verbal working memory deficits on metaphor comprehension in patients with Parkinson's disease. Brain Lang 2007;101:80-89.
³⁹
Zaidel E, Kasher A, Soroker N, Batori G. Effects of right and left hemisphere damage on performance of the Right Hemisphere Communication Battery. Brain Lang 2002;80:510-535.
⁴⁰
Caramelli P, Poissant A, Gauthier P, et al. Educational level and neurospsychological heterogeneity in dementia of the Alzheimer type. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 1997;11:9-15.
⁴¹
Cobb JL, Wolf PA, Au R, White R, D'Agostino RB. The effect of education on the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in the Framingham Study. Neurology 1995;45:1701-1712.
⁴²
Castro-Caldas A, Guerreiro M. Cultural background as a risk factor for dementia. In: Boller F, Cappa SF, editors. Handbook of Neuropsychology. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2001:453-462.
⁴³
Corral M, Rodriguez M, Amenedo E, Sanchez JL, Diaz F. Cognitive reserve, age, and neuropsychological performance in healthy participants'. Dev Neuropsychol 2006;29:479-491.
⁴⁴
Stern, Y. What is cognitive reserve? Theory and research application of the reserve concept. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2002;8:448-460.
⁴⁵
Satz P. Brain reserve capacity on symptom onset after brain injury: A formulation and review of evidence for threshold theory. Neuropsychology 1993;7:273-295.
⁴⁶
MacLullich AM, Ferguson KJ, Deary IJ, Seckl JR, Starr JM, Wardlaw JM. Intracranial capacity and brain volumes are associated with cognition in healthy elderly men. Neurology 2002;59:169-174.
⁴⁷
Scarmeas N, Zarahn E, Anderson KE, et al. Cognitive reserve modulates functional brain responses during memory tasks: A PET study in healthy young and elderly subjects. Neuroimage 2003;19:1215-227.
⁴⁸
Scarmeas N, Zarahn E, Anderson KE, et al. Cognitive reserve-mediated modulation of positron emission tomographic activations during memory tasks in Alzheimer disease. Arch Neurol 2004;61:73-78.

Publication Dates

Publication in this collection
Jul-Sep 2008

History

Received
01 Aug 2008
Accepted
20 Aug 2008

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License

[1] ¹
Lecours AR, Mehler J, Parente MAMP. et al. Illiteracy and brain damage: aphasia testing in culturally contrated population. Neuropsychologia 1987;25:231-245.

[2] ²
Lecours AR, Mehler J, Parente MAMP. Illiteracy in brain damage: a contribution to the study of speech and language disorders in illiterates with brain damage. Neuropsychologia 1988;104:98-108.

[3] ³
Parente MAMP, Lecours AR. Participação do hemisfério direito na recuperação das afasias de analfabetos. Neuropsychologia Latina 1998;4:73-78.

[4] ⁴
O'Bryant SE, Humphreys JD, Smith GE, et al. Detecting dementia with the Mini mental state examination in highly educated individuals. Arch Neurol 2008;65:963-967.

[5] ⁵
Zunzunegui MV, Cuadra PG, Beâ LF, Ser T, Wolfson, C. Development of simple cognitive function measures in a community dwelling population of elderly in Spain. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 2000;15:130-140.

[6] ⁶
Critchley M. Premorbid literacy and the pattern of subsequent aphasia. Proc Soc Med 1956;49:335-336.

[7] ⁷
Weber E. Das schreiben als ursache de einseitigen lage des sprachzentrums. Zentralblatte als Physiologie 1904;18:341-347.

[8] ⁸
Gorlitzer von Mundy V. Zur frage des paarig veranlagten sprachzentren. Nervenarzt 1957;28:212-216.

[9] ⁹
Mételus J, Cathala HP, Aubry-Issartier A, Bodak A. Une observation d´aphasie chez une illetrée (analphabète) concourant au langage. Ann Med Psychol 1981;139:992-001.

[10] ¹⁰
Wechsler AF. Crossed aphasia in an illiterate dextral. Brain Lang 1976;3:164-172.

[11] ¹¹
Cameron RF, Currier RD, Haerer AF. Aphasia and literacy. Br J Disord Commun 1971; 6:161-163.

[12] ¹²
Damasio AR, Castro-Caldas A, Grosso JT, Ferro, JM. Brain specialization for language does not depend on literacy. Arch Neurol 1976;33:300-301.

[13] ¹³
Castro-Caldas A, Reis A. Neurobiological substrates of illiteracy. Neuroscientist 2000;6:475-482.

[14] ¹⁴
Petersson K, Reis A, Askelöf S, Castro-Caldas A, Ingvar M. Language processing modulated by literacy: a network analysis of verbal repetition in literate and illiterate subjects. J Cogn Neurosci 2000;12:364-382.

[15] ¹⁵
Reis A, Petersson K. Educational level socioeconomic status and aphasia research: a comment on Connor et al. (2001) - effect socioeconomic status on aphasia severity and recovery. Brain Lang 2003;87:449-452.

[16] ¹⁶
Connor LT, Obler LK, Tocco M, Fitzpatrick PM, Albert ML. Effect of socio economic status on aphasia severity and recovery. Brain Lang 2001;78:254-257.

[17] ¹⁷
Castro-Caldas A, Peterson KM, Reis A, Stone-Elander S, Ingvar M. The illiterate brain: Learning to read and write during childhood influences the functional organization of the adult brain. Brain 1998;121:1053-1063.

[18] ¹⁸
Peterson KM, Reis A, Castro-Caldas A, Ingvar M. Effective auditory-verbal encoding activities the left prefrontal and the medial temporal lobes: A generalization to illiterate subjects. Neuroimage. 1999; 10:45-54.

[19] ¹⁹
Castro-Caldas A, Miranda Cavaleiro P, Carmo I, et al. Influence of learning to read and write on the morphology of the corpus callosum. Eur J Neurol 1999;6:23-28.

[20] ²⁰
Del Ser T, Haschinski V, Merskey H, Munoz DG. An autopsy-verified study of the effect of education on degenerative dementia. Brain 1999;122:2309-2319.

[21] ²¹
Ostrosky-Solís F, Ardila A, Rosselli M. NEUROPSI: a brief neuropsychological test battery in Spanish with norms by age and educational level. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 1999;5:413-433.

[22] ²²
Herrera-Guzmán I, Peña-Casanova J, Lara JP, Gudayol-Ferré E, Böhm P. Influence of age, sex, and education on the Visual Object and Space Perception Battery (VOSP) in a healthy normal elderly population. Clin Neuropsychol 2004;18:385-394.

[23] ²³
Ardila A, Ostrosky-Solis F, Rosselli, M, Gómez C. Age-related cognitive decline during normal aging: the complex effect of education. Arch Clin Neuropsychol 2000;15:495-513.

[24] ²⁴
Evrard M. Ageing and lexical access to common and proper names in picture naming. Brain Lang 2002;81:174-179.

[25] ²⁵
Côté H, Moix V, Giroux F. Évaluation des troubles de la communication des cérébrolésés droits. Rééducation Orthophonique 2004;219:107-122.

[26] ²⁶
Bertolucci PHF, Brucki SMD, Campacci S, Juliano Y. [The Mini-Mental State Examination in a general population: impact of educational status]. Arq Neuropsiquiatr 1994;52:1-7.

[27] ²⁷
Rami L, Serradell M, Bosch B, et al. Normative data for the Boston Naming Test and the Pyramids and Palm Trees Test in the elderly Spanish population', J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2008;30:1-6.

[28] ²⁸
Fonseca RP, Joanette Y, Ska B, Giroux F, Parente MAMP. Age and education effects on adults performance in the Bateria Montreal de Avaliação da Comunicação - Bateria MAC. Paper presented at 2nd Meeting of the European Societies of Neuropsychology. Toulouse, France: Euronpsy 2006, 2006:83.

[29] ²⁹
Hassing L, Wahlin A, Bäckman L. Minimal influence of age, education, and gender on episodic memory functioning in very old age: a population-based study of nonagenarians. Arch Gerontol Geriatr 1998;27:75-87.

[30] ³⁰
Duong A, Giroux F, Tardif A, Ska B. The heterogeneity of picture-supported narratives in Alzheimer's disease. Brain Lang 2005;93:173-184.

[31] ³¹
Valdois S, Joanette Y, Poiussant A, Ska B, Dehaut F. Heterogeneity in the cognitive profile of normal elderly. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 1990;12:587-596.

[32] ³²
Ska B, Duong A. Communication, discourse et démence. Psychol Neuropsychiatr Vieil 2005;3:125-133.

[33] ³³
Kulaif T, Valle LER. Alternative to the stroop color-word test for illiterate individuals. Clin Neuropsychol 2008;22:73-83.

[34] ³⁴
Beausoleil N, Fortin R, Le Blanc B, Joanette Y. Unconstrained oral naming performance in right- and left-hemisphere-damaged individuals: When education overrides the lesion. Aphasiology 2003;17:143-158.

[35] ³⁵
Fonseca RP, Fachel JMG, Chaves, MLF, Liedtke FV, Parente MAMP. Right hemisphere damage: communication processing in adults evaluated by the Brazilian Protocole MEC - Bateria MAC. Dement Neuropsychol 2007;3:266-275.

[36] ³⁶
Soares, EC. Avaliação de linguagem em sujeitos adultos através do Teste MT Beta 86 Modificado: estudo piloto e aplicação em sujeitos afásicos. Dissertação. Universidade Federal de São Paulo: São Paulo; 2007.

[37] ³⁷
Poore QE, Rapport LJ, Fuerst DR, Keenan P. Word list generation performance in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. Neuropsychol Dev Cogn B Aging Neuropsychol Cogn 2006;13:86-94.

[38] ³⁸
Monetta L, Pell MD. Effects of verbal working memory deficits on metaphor comprehension in patients with Parkinson's disease. Brain Lang 2007;101:80-89.

[39] ³⁹
Zaidel E, Kasher A, Soroker N, Batori G. Effects of right and left hemisphere damage on performance of the Right Hemisphere Communication Battery. Brain Lang 2002;80:510-535.

[40] ⁴⁰
Caramelli P, Poissant A, Gauthier P, et al. Educational level and neurospsychological heterogeneity in dementia of the Alzheimer type. Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 1997;11:9-15.

[41] ⁴¹
Cobb JL, Wolf PA, Au R, White R, D'Agostino RB. The effect of education on the incidence of dementia and Alzheimer's disease in the Framingham Study. Neurology 1995;45:1701-1712.

[42] ⁴²
Castro-Caldas A, Guerreiro M. Cultural background as a risk factor for dementia. In: Boller F, Cappa SF, editors. Handbook of Neuropsychology. Amsterdam: Elsevier; 2001:453-462.

[43] ⁴³
Corral M, Rodriguez M, Amenedo E, Sanchez JL, Diaz F. Cognitive reserve, age, and neuropsychological performance in healthy participants'. Dev Neuropsychol 2006;29:479-491.

[44] ⁴⁴
Stern, Y. What is cognitive reserve? Theory and research application of the reserve concept. J Int Neuropsychol Soc 2002;8:448-460.

[45] ⁴⁵
Satz P. Brain reserve capacity on symptom onset after brain injury: A formulation and review of evidence for threshold theory. Neuropsychology 1993;7:273-295.

[46] ⁴⁶
MacLullich AM, Ferguson KJ, Deary IJ, Seckl JR, Starr JM, Wardlaw JM. Intracranial capacity and brain volumes are associated with cognition in healthy elderly men. Neurology 2002;59:169-174.

[47] ⁴⁷
Scarmeas N, Zarahn E, Anderson KE, et al. Cognitive reserve modulates functional brain responses during memory tasks: A PET study in healthy young and elderly subjects. Neuroimage 2003;19:1215-227.

[48] ⁴⁸
Scarmeas N, Zarahn E, Anderson KE, et al. Cognitive reserve-mediated modulation of positron emission tomographic activations during memory tasks in Alzheimer disease. Arch Neurol 2004;61:73-78.

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