The knowledge of orthography is a revolution in the brain

Brain adaptation to the type of informationthat is processed has been documented inseveral conditions in animals and humans.Illiteracy due to social reasons is a goodsource of information to investigate theadaptation mechanisms to the formal knowledgeof written language. In this paper, a series ofstudies addressing this topic are reviewed.Illiterate subjects and their carefullyselected controls were compared in severalexperimental conditions. It is concluded thatschooling and in particular the knowledge oforthography introduces in the brain newstrategies for information processing thatmanifest themselves in task performance, inbrain activation studies and in anatomicalstudies.