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The Neurobiology of Adult Literacy Acquisition: Cortical Recycling, White Matter Microstructure, and Evidence-Based Interventions for Oral-Tradition Learners Cognitive and Neurobiological Foundations of the Non-Literate Brain Spoken language is a biologically primary skill, meaning that the human brain has evolved specialized networks to acquire speech and auditory comprehension naturally through immersion and without formal instruction. In contrast, reading and writing are culturally invented systems developed within the last 6,000 years. Consequently, there is no genetically predetermined, dedicated reading region in the human genome. To acquire literacy, the brain must systematically repurpose and integrate neural networks that originally evolved for vision, language, and motor control.     In individuals raised within oral-tradition languages, the brain develops a highly functional cognitive architecture optimized for acoustic processing, relational narrative memor...