Is Word Recognition Automatic? A Cognitive-Anatomical Approach

1989 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 50-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael I. Posner ◽  
Jennifer Sandson ◽  
Meena Dhawan ◽  
Gordon L. Shulman
Keyword(s):  
Word Processing ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Auditory Word ◽  
Peripheral Cues ◽  
Attention System ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Anatomical Localization ◽  
Mental Operations

What are the implications of anatomical localization of component mental operations for cognitive models? In this paper we use the anatomical localizations of visual and auditory word processing that were previously reported from PET studies (Petersen, Fox, Posner, Mintun & Raichle, 1988. We hypothesize that two operations performed simultaneously by the same or heavily interconnected anatomical areas will produce specific interference. One task is repeating back (shadowing) auditory words as quickly as possible. This task is shown to interfere with shifts of visual attention in the direction of peripheral cues. Both tasks are known to require common attentional operations localized to the medial frontal lobe. The shadowing task does not interfere with operations involving priming of a visual word form. This kind of priming involves areas of the ventral occipital lobe not used during shadowing. Finally, both shadowing and semantic priming involve anterior semantic and intentional areas. Accordingly, they can interfere. The conditions under which they produce interference suggest that the interference involves operations performed by the anterior attention system. These experiments support the idea that words automatically activate visual word forms, but involve shared attentional systems for higher level processes.

scholarly journals Decoding and disrupting left midfusiform gyrus activity during word reading

2016 ◽  
Vol 113 (29) ◽  
pp. 8162-8167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Hirshorn ◽  
Yuanning Li ◽  
Michael J. Ward ◽  
R. Mark Richardson ◽  
Julie A. Fiez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Processing ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Visual Representation ◽  
Strong Support ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Precise Representation ◽  
Intracranial Electroencephalography

The nature of the visual representation for words has been fiercely debated for over 150 y. We used direct brain stimulation, pre- and postsurgical behavioral measures, and intracranial electroencephalography to provide support for, and elaborate upon, the visual word form hypothesis. This hypothesis states that activity in the left midfusiform gyrus (lmFG) reflects visually organized information about words and word parts. In patients with electrodes placed directly in their lmFG, we found that disrupting lmFG activity through stimulation, and later surgical resection in one of the patients, led to impaired perception of whole words and letters. Furthermore, using machine-learning methods to analyze the electrophysiological data from these electrodes, we found that information contained in early lmFG activity was consistent with an orthographic similarity space. Finally, the lmFG contributed to at least two distinguishable stages of word processing, an early stage that reflects gist-level visual representation sensitive to orthographic statistics, and a later stage that reflects more precise representation sufficient for the individuation of orthographic word forms. These results provide strong support for the visual word form hypothesis and demonstrate that across time the lmFG is involved in multiple stages of orthographic representation.

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

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.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Brem ◽  
U. Maurer ◽  
M. Kronbichler ◽  
M. Schurz ◽  
F. Richlan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Reading Fluency ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Common Finding ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Reduced Word ◽  
Form Processing ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Intermediate Readers ◽  
Spatially Extended

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.

The Visual Word Form Area remains in the dominant hemisphere for language in late-onset left occipital lobe epilepsies: A postsurgery analysis of two cases

2015 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 91-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricardo Lopes ◽  
Rita Gouveia Nunes ◽  
Mário Rodrigues Simões ◽  
Mário Forjaz Secca ◽  
Alberto Leal
Keyword(s):  
Late Onset ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Dominant Hemisphere ◽  
Visual Word Form Area

A Cognitive-Anatomical Approach to Attention in Lexical Access

1991 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 304-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul E. Compton ◽  
Peter Grossenbacher ◽  
Michael I. Posner ◽  
Don M. Tucker
Keyword(s):  
Time Course ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Feature Identification ◽  
Form Discrimination ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Semantic Associations ◽  
Letter Case

Recent PET studies have suggested a specific anatomy for feature identification, visual word forms and semantic associations. Our studies seek to explore the time course of access to these systems by use of reaction time and scalp electrical recording. Target detection times suggest that different forms of representation are involved in the detection of letter features, feature conjunctions (letters), and words. Feature search is fastest at the fovea and slows symmetrically with greater foveal eccentricity. It is not influenced by lexicality. Detecting a letter case (conjunction) shows a left to right search which differs between words and consonant strings. Analysis of scalp electrical distribution suggest an occipito-temporal distribution for the analysis of visual features (right sided) and for the visual word form discrimination (left sided). These fit with the PET results, and suggest that the feature related analysis begins within the first 100 millisec and the visual word form discriminates words from strings by about 200 msec. Lexical decision instructions can modify the computations found in both frontal and posterior areas.

Learning to read without a left occipital lobe: Right-hemispheric shift of visual word form area

2004 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 890-894 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurent Cohen ◽  
Stéphane Lehéricy ◽  
Carole Henry ◽  
Marie Bourgeois ◽  
Christine Larroque ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Learning To Read ◽  
Visual Word Form Area

scholarly journals Curved vs. Straight-Line Handwriting Effects on Word Recognition in Typical and Dyslexic Readers Across Chinese and English

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Connie Qun Guan ◽  
Yifei Li ◽  
Wanjin Meng ◽  
Laura M. Morett
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Multisensory Integration ◽  
Character Recognition ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Line Drawing ◽  
English Word ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Straight Line ◽  
Study Results

Handwriting serves to link auditory and motor routines with visual word processing, which is a hallmark of successful reading. The current study aims to explore the effect of multisensory integration as a pathway to neural specialization for print among typical and dyslexic readers across writing systems. We identified 9–10-year-old dyslexic Chinese children (n = 24) and their typically developing counterparts (n = 24) on whom we conducted both behavioral and electroencephalogram (EEG) experiments. We designed four learning conditions: Handwriting Chinese (HC), Viewing Chinese (VC), Drawing followed by Character Recognition in Chinese (D-C), and Drawing followed by Word Recognition in English (D-E). In both handwriting and drawing conditions, we also designed curved vs. straight-line stimuli. Both behavioral and EEG results showed that handwriting straight line strokes facilitated visual word recognition in Chinese compared to handwriting curved lines. Handwriting conditions resulted in a lateralization of the N170 in typical readers, but not the dyslexic readers. Interestingly, drawing curved lines facilitate word recognition in English among dyslexic readers. Taken together, the results of the study suggest benefits of handwriting on the neural processing and behavioral performance in response to Chinese character recognition and curved-line drawing effects on English word recognition among dyslexic readers. But the lack of handwriting effects in dyslexic readers suggest that students who have deficits in reading may also be missing the link between multisensory integration and word recognition in the visual word form areas. The current study results have implications for maintaining handwriting practices to promote perception and motor integration for visual word form area development for normal readers and suggest that drawing practices might benefit Chinese dyslexic readers in reading English.

scholarly journals Opposite effects of visual and auditory word-likeness on activity in the visual word form area

2013 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp Ludersdorfer ◽  
Matthias Schurz ◽  
Fabio Richlan ◽  
Martin Kronbichler ◽  
Heinz Wimmer
Keyword(s):  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Auditory Word

Can a Word Sound Like a Shape Before You Have Seen It? Sound-Shape Mapping Prior to Conscious Awareness

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shao-Min Hung ◽  
Suzy J. Styles ◽  
Po-Jang Hsieh
Keyword(s):  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Visual Features ◽  
Conscious Awareness ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Continuous Flash Suppression ◽  
Auditory Word ◽  
Word Forms ◽  
Shape Mapping ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Level Of Processing

Nonarbitrary mappings between sound and shape (i.e., the bouba-kiki effect) have been shown across different cultures and early in development; however, the level of processing at which this effect arises remains unclear. Here we show that the mapping occurs prior to conscious awareness of the visual stimuli. Under continuous flash suppression, congruent stimuli (e.g., “kiki” inside an angular shape) broke through to conscious awareness faster than incongruent stimuli. This was true even when we trained people to pair unfamiliar letters with auditory word forms, a result showing that the effect was driven by the phonology, not the visual features, of the letters. Furthermore, visibility thresholds of the shapes decreased when they were preceded by a congruent auditory word form in a masking paradigm. Taken together, our results suggest that sound-shape mapping can occur automatically prior to conscious awareness of visual shapes, and that sensory congruence facilitates conscious awareness of a stimulus being present.

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