Neurofunctional Activation Patterns Reflect Differences in Cognitive Control Associated with Spelling Skills in Spanish

Introduction: There is an essential relationship between reading development and orthographic knowledge, which varies depending on a language's orthographic characteristics. In transparent orthographies, such as Spanish, that relationship is closer, where reading speed and orthographic knowledge reflect the automation of the process in which crucial participation of attention networks is assumed. Objective: The objective of this study is to compare behavioral performance and patterns of cerebral functional activity while subjects with high and low orthographic knowledge perform an attentional control task involving word recognition. Methods: Thirty right-handed participants, aged between 17 and 20 years, were selected through non-probabilistic sampling and then classified into two groups according to their level of orthographic knowledge: high (H) and low (L). Neurofunctional activity was recorded using fMRI methods during the execution of a Stroop task (words printed in color congruent and incongruent with their meaning) under two conditions: attending to the meaning (automatic processing) or the color (interference condition). Results: The L group showed greater reaction times in both conditions, as well as greater functional activity in subcortical areas. In contrast, the H group showed higher activity in cortical areas, such as left supramarginal gyrus and medial frontal gyrus in the automatic processing condition, and in the parietal lobe during interference. Conclusions: The more significant activity in the giro frontal medial of the high orthographic knowledge group could imply recruitment of greater attention and cognitive control resources, while the neurofunctional activity observed in the low group could be associated with a compensatory effect with the recruitment of subcortical areas to solve the task.