Visual word form processing deficits driven by severity of reading impairments in children with developmental dyslexia

Abstract The visual word form area (VWFA) in the left ventral occipito-temporal (vOT) cortex is key to fluent reading in children and adults. Diminished VWFA activation during print processing tasks is a common finding in subjects with severe reading problems. Here, we report fMRI data from a multicentre study with 140 children in primary school (7.9–12.2 years; 55 children with dyslexia, 73 typical readers, 12 intermediate readers). All performed a semantic task on visually presented words and a matched control task on symbol strings. With this large group of children, including the entire spectrum from severely impaired to highly fluent readers, we aimed to clarify the association of reading fluency and left vOT activation during visual word processing. The results of this study confirm reduced word-sensitive activation within the left vOT in children with dyslexia. Interestingly, the association of reading skills and left vOT activation was especially strong and spatially extended in children with dyslexia. Thus, deficits in basic visual word form processing increase with the severity of reading disability but seem only weakly associated with fluency within the typical reading range suggesting a linear dependence of reading scores with VFWA activation only in the poorest readers.

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Neurodegeneration of the visual word form area in a patient with word form alexia

Neurology and Clinical Neuroscience ◽

10.1111/ncn3.12516 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Adithya Chandregowda ◽

Joseph R. Duffy ◽

Mary M. Machulda ◽

Val J. Lowe ◽

Jennifer L. Whitwell ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Word ◽

Word Form ◽

Visual Word Form Area

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A tale of two recognition systems: Implications of the fusiform face area and the visual word form area for lateralized object recognition models

Neuropsychologia ◽

10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2008.08.024 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 47 (1) ◽

pp. 1-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 76

Author(s):

Joseph Dien

Keyword(s):

Object Recognition ◽

Visual Word ◽

Word Form ◽

Fusiform Face Area ◽

Visual Word Form Area ◽

Face Area ◽

Recognition Systems

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Spoken language coding neurons in the Visual Word Form Area: Evidence from a TMS adaptation paradigm

NeuroImage ◽

10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.11.014 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 186 ◽

pp. 278-285 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Chotiga Pattamadilok ◽

Samuel Planton ◽

Mireille Bonnard

Keyword(s):

Spoken Language ◽

Visual Word ◽

Word Form ◽

Visual Word Form Area

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Cortical selectivity driven by connectivity: Innate connectivity patterns of the visual word form area

10.1101/712455 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Jin Li ◽

David E. Osher ◽

Heather A. Hansen ◽

Zeynep M. Saygin

Keyword(s):

Resting State ◽

Functional Organization ◽

Resting State Fmri ◽

Visual Word ◽

Functional Specialization ◽

Word Form ◽

Visual Word Form Area ◽

Connectivity Patterns ◽

Set Up ◽

Language Network

AbstractWhat determines the functional organization of cortex? One hypothesis is that innate connectivity patterns set up a scaffold upon which functional specialization can later take place. We tested this hypothesis by asking whether the visual word form area (VWFA), an experience-driven region, was already connected to proto language networks in neonates scanned within one week of birth. With resting-state fMRI, we found that neonates showed adult-like functional connectivity, and observed that i) language regions connected more strongly with the putative VWFA than other adjacent ventral visual regions that also show foveal bias, and ii) the VWFA connected more strongly with frontotemporal language regions than with regions adjacent to these language regions. These data suggest that the location of the VWFA is earmarked at birth due to its connectivity with the language network, providing evidence that innate connectivity instructs the later refinement of cortex.

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Neurophysiology of grapheme decoding

Revista da ABRALIN ◽

10.25189/rabralin.v17i1.501 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 402-433

Author(s):

Marije SOTO ◽

Juliana Novo GOMES ◽

Aniela Improta FRANÇA ◽

Aniela Gesualdi MANHÃES

Keyword(s):

Reading Fluency ◽

Visual Processing ◽

Individual Performance ◽

Word Form ◽

Test Results ◽

Predictive Tool ◽

Form Processing ◽

N170 Component ◽

8Th Graders ◽

Electrophysiological Experiment

This study zooms in on the specialization of visual processing that underlies grapheme and word form processing, and presents an electrophysiological experiment performed with 8th graders in a public state elementary school. The methodology of Event Related Brain Potential (EEG-ERP) was used to collect and analyze the N170 component, a neurophysiological signature sensitive to grapheme and word form processing. The test results indicated that, in this group, higher performance in grapheme recognition was not associated to a reduced difference between ERP wave amplitudes in response to word and false font stimuli, but instead to a clear left lateralization of print sensitive N170 responses. Differently from most ERP studies that uses the grand-averaging of all participants’ ERP responses, the current analysis also investigated individual performance of participants. In this modality, the varying levels of intensity and lateralization of the neurophysiological response indicate that a large portion of the participants remain in the process of obtaining reading fluency long after having started to learn how to read. The qualitative correlation between performance and the degree of lateralization is, thus, a novel and promising measurement involving the N170 component as a descriptive and predictive tool in the monitoring of reading acquisition stages.

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Beyond the visual word form area: The orthography–semantics interface in spelling and reading

Cognitive Neuropsychology ◽

10.1080/02643294.2014.909399 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 31 (5-6) ◽

pp. 482-510 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Jeremy J. Purcell ◽

Jennifer Shea ◽

Brenda Rapp

Keyword(s):

Visual Word ◽

Word Form ◽

Visual Word Form Area

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The visual word form area

Brain ◽

10.1093/brain/123.2.291 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 123 (2) ◽

pp. 291-307 ◽

Cited By ~ 1123

Author(s):

Laurent Cohen ◽

Stanislas Dehaene ◽

Lionel Naccache ◽

Stéphane Lehéricy ◽

Ghislaine Dehaene-Lambertz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Visual Word ◽

Word Form ◽

Visual Word Form Area

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Functional Role of the Left Ventral Occipito-Temporal Cortex in Reading

Advances in Bioinformatics and Biomedical Engineering - Biomedical Engineering and Cognitive Neuroscience for Healthcare ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-2113-8.ch020 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 192-200

Author(s):

Geqi Qi ◽

Jinglong Wu

Keyword(s):

Functional Properties ◽

Functional Role ◽

Word Processing ◽

Functional Organization ◽

Temporal Cortex ◽

Visual Word ◽

Word Form ◽

Considerable Debate ◽

Two Sides

The sensitivity of the left ventral occipito-temporal (vOT) cortex to visual word processing has triggered a considerable debate about the functional role of this region in reading. The debate rests largely on the issue whether this particular region is specifically dedicated to reading and the extraction of invariant visual word form. A lot of studies have been conducted to provide evidences supporting or against the functional specialization of this region. However, the trend is showing that the different functional properties proposed by the two kinds of view are not in conflict with each other, but instead show different sides of the same fact. Here, the authors focus on two questions: firstly, where do the two views conflict, and secondly, how do they fit with each other on a larger framework of functional organization in object vision pathway? This review evaluates findings from the two sides of the debate for a broader understanding of the functional role of the left vOT cortex.

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