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Literacy

• Literacy is the ability to read and write, enabling communication without face-to-face contact.
• It is an expert system derived from a core set of other skills such as visual recognition, manipulation of sounds, learning, and memory.
• Visual word recognition involves processing letter strings as a whole, not one by one.
• The visual lexicon is a storage of how words are written.
• The word superiority effect states that it is easier to detect a letter in the context of a word or a nonsense letter string than in a random letter string or in isolation.

Visual Word Form Area

• The visual word form area is thought to be a dedicated cognitive mechanism for visual lexicon.
• It is located in the left mid fusiform gyrus.
• It also responds to visual objects and Braille reading.
• It might be a computational hub that links together different brain regions (e.g., vision and speech).

Acquired Reading Deficiencies

• Central dyslexia: disruption of reading arising after computation of a visual word form.
  • Surface dyslexia: reading nonwords and regularly spelled words better than irregularly spelled words.
  • Phonological dyslexia: reading real words better than nonwords.
  • Deep dyslexia: real word reading is prone to semantic error.
• Peripheral dyslexia: disruption of reading arising up to the level of computation of a visual word form.
  • Pure alexia: acquired difficulty in reading words that leads to letter-by-letter reading, with reading time increasing proportionately to the length of the word.

fMRI Studies

• fMRI studies show that there are multiple areas involved in literacy, predominantly left-lateralized.
  • Inferior frontal lobe (Broca's area)
  • Inferior parietal lobe (Wernicke's and angular gyrus – verbal working memory)
  • Anterior and mid-temporal lobes (semantic memory)
• Reading uses similar brain regions across different languages, albeit to varying degrees.

Spelling and Writing

• Dysgraphia: difficulties in spelling, similar deficiencies as central dyslexia.
  • Deep dysgraphia: real word spelling is prone to semantic error.
• Dysgraphia is generally multimodal, patients tend to produce the same kinds of errors in writing, typing, or oral spelling – but not always.
• Some evidence shows separate written versus oral letter name output codes in spelling – indicating involvement of motor codes in writing.

Numeracy

Universal Numeracy

• Numeracy is not limited to maths, and humans and other species have numerical abilities that enable them to estimate quantity and perform basic calculations.
• Infants, unschooled individuals, cavemen, and non-human animals all possess a fundamental sense of numeracy, except for dyscalculia.

Numbers

• Non-symbolic number processing is universal.
  • Ability to perform tasks is harder with increasing sets, even if the ratio is the same.
  • We can subitize (enumerate an exact quantity of objects without counting them) 4 items and less.
  • Numbers above 4 can only be processed approximately rather than exactly in the absence of language.
• When we write in Arabic digits (i.e., 1-9, 0), we symbolize numbers.
  • Distance effect: it is faster to decide which number is larger when the distance between two numbers is large (e.g., 2 or 9) relative to small (e.g., 8 or 9).
  • Size effect: it is easier to judge which of two numbers is larger when the numbers are small (e.g., 3 or 5) compared with when they are large (e.g., 7 or 9), even when the distance between them is equal.

Neural Substrates

Number Meaning

• Not only countable quantities but also continuous and uncountable quantities are processed by the number system (e.g., length, area, brightness, etc.).
• Restle's MNL: Mental number line
• Walsh's ATOM: A theory of magnitude

Numbers & Space

• SNARC effect: Spatial-Numberical Association of Response Codes (Dehaene et al., 1993)
• Cultural SNARC: Ito & Hatta (2004), Shaki et al. (2009), Bulut et al. (2023)
• SNARC-like effects: Wühr & Seegelke (2008), Sellaro et al. (2014), Prpic et al. (2016), Fischer et al. (2003), Rugani et al. (2015), de Hevia et al. (2014)

Triple Code Model

• 1. Abstract (semantic) magnitude
• 2. Verbal store of numbers and operations
• 3. Visual representation for numerals (digits) & workbench for certain calculations

Executive Functions

• Executive functions are complex processes that optimize performance in situations requiring multiple cognitive processes.
• They are not tied to a specific domain (e.g., memory, language, perception) and play a meta-cognitive, supervisory, or controlling role.
• Related to the prefrontal cortex.

Problem-Solving

• Problem-solving involves generating a solution given an end point (goal) and optionally a starting point (set of objects).
• Examples of problem-solving tests include the Tower of London, FAS test, and Cognitive Estimates Test.
• Prefrontal cortex lesions often lead to poor problem-solving.

Overcoming Habitual Responses

• Inhibition reduces the likelihood of a particular thought/action.
• Related to the medial prefrontal cortex, specifically the anterior cingulate cortex and pre-SMA.
• The Stroop task is an example of overcoming habitual responses, where participants must name the color of the ink and ignore reading the color name.

Overcoming Potent Responses

• Inhibition reduces the likelihood of a particular thought/action.
• Related to the medial prefrontal cortex, specifically the anterior cingulate cortex and pre-SMA.
• The Go/No-Go task is an example of overcoming potent responses, where participants respond to a frequent stimulus (go trials) but withhold a response to another stimulus (no-go trials).

Task Switching

• Discarding a previous schema and establishing a new one requires prefrontal cortex activation.
• PFC damage leads to perseveration (failure to shift).
• The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test is an example of task switching, where participants must adjust their responses to new rules.
• Switch cost refers to the slowing of response time due to discarding a previous schema and setting up a new one.

Multi-Tasking

• Multi-tasking involves carrying out several tasks in succession and requires both task switching and maintaining future goals while current goals are being dealt with.
• Patients with lesions to the anterior prefrontal cortex may be particularly impaired at multi-tasking.
• The Six Element Test is an example of multi-tasking, where patients with prefrontal lesions often fail to switch tasks, spend too long planning, and so on.

Decision Making

• Decisions are not solely based on rationality, even without brain damage.
• Framing or social justice perception (e.g., ultimatum game) can affect decisions.
• The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) are involved in decision-making.

Somatic Marker Hypothesis

• Somatic markers link previous situations stored in the cortex to the "feeling" of those situations stored in regions of the brain dedicated to emotion (e.g., amygdala) and the representation of the body states (e.g., insula).
• Somatic markers are stored in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and have a direct role in controlling ongoing behavior.

Iowa Gambling Test

• The Iowa Gambling Test is an example of the Somatic Marker Hypothesis.

Delay Discounting

• Delay discounting involves choosing between current rewards and future rewards.
• Whether to go on holiday this year or invest the money for a better holiday in the future is an example of delay discounting.
• Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) lesions lead to planning failure and impulsive behavior.

Multiple Demand Network

• The lateral prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate cortex, and intraparietal sulcus are involved in cognitive control.
• The Multiple Demand Network is not subdivided into different regions.

Hemispheric Differences

• Left lateral prefrontal cortex is specialized for problem-solving, while right is for task monitoring.
• Alternative views suggest that the lateralization of the prefrontal cortex is not as clear-cut.

Anterior Cingulate Cortex (ACC)

• The anterior cingulate cortex is considered part of the limbic system.
• It is involved in error detection and has a cognitive mechanism that monitors for errors and recalibrates task performance accordingly.
• The dorsal ACC is involved in cognitive functions, while the rostral ACC is involved in affective functions.