The Role of the Posterior Fusiform Gyrus in Reading

Studies of skilled reading [Price, C. J., & Mechelli, A. Reading and reading disturbance. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 15, 231–238, 2005], its acquisition in children [Shaywitz, B. A., Shaywitz, S. E., Pugh, K. R., Mencl, W. E., Fulbright, R. K., Skudlarski, P., et al. Disruption of posterior brain systems for reading in children with developmental dyslexia. Biological Psychiatry, 52, 101–110, 2002; Turkeltaub, P. E., Gareau, L., Flowers, D. L., Zeffiro, T. A., & Eden, G. F. Development of neural mechanisms for reading. Nature Neuroscience, 6, 767–773, 2003], and its impairment in patients with pure alexia [Leff, A. P., Crewes, H., Plant, G. T., Scott, S. K., Kennard, C., & Wise, R. J. The functional anatomy of single word reading in patients with hemianopic and pure alexia. Brain, 124, 510–521, 2001] all highlight the importance of the left posterior fusiform cortex in visual word recognition. We used visual masked priming and functional magnetic resonance imaging to elucidate the specific functional contribution of this region to reading and found that (1) unlike words, repetition of pseudowords (“solst-solst”) did not produce a neural priming effect in this region, (2) orthographically related words such as “corner-corn” did produce a neural priming effect, but (3) this orthographic priming effect was reduced when prime-target pairs were semantically related (“teacher-teach”). These findings conflict with the notion of stored visual word forms and instead suggest that this region acts as an interface between visual form information and higher order stimulus properties such as its associated sound and meaning. More importantly, this function is not specific to reading but is also engaged when processing any meaningful visual stimulus.

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The functional anatomy of single-word reading in patients with hemianopic and pure alexia

Brain ◽

10.1093/brain/124.3.510 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 124 (3) ◽

pp. 510-521 ◽

Cited By ~ 114

Author(s):

A. P. Leff ◽

H. Crewes ◽

G. T. Plant ◽

S. K. Scott ◽

C. Kennard ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Word Reading ◽

Functional Anatomy ◽

Single Word ◽

Pure Alexia ◽

Single Word Reading

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Morphological priming of inflectional suffixes

10.31219/osf.io/s8awx ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Katarina Marjanovic ◽

Davide Crepaldi

Keyword(s):

Priming Effect ◽

Word Identification ◽

Masked Priming ◽

Visual Word ◽

Priming Paradigm ◽

Morphological Priming ◽

Visual Word Identification ◽

The Rich ◽

Complex Words

Morphologically complex words are processed through their constituent morphemes during visual word recognition. While this has been primarily established through the stem priming paradigm, the role of shared affixes is more controversial. Also, most evidence on affix priming comes from derivation, while inflectional priming remains largely unaddressed. Here we present two lexical decision, masked priming experiments filling this gap. Taking advantage of the rich inflectional pattern of Slovene, we assessed inflectional suffix priming (mestam–HALJAM), and compared it to the well-established stem priming effect (haljov–HALJAM): while the latter is solid as expected, the former seems to be weak to non–existing. Results further indicate that there is no interaction between sharing a stem and sharing an inflectional suffix—neither stem nor suffix priming is boosted when primes and targets also share the other morpheme. These data indicate an important difference between stems, derivational affixes and inflectional affixes, which we consider in the context of models of visual word identification and information theory.

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Transposed-Letter Priming Effects for Close Versus Distant Transpositions

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169.55.6.384 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 55 (6) ◽

pp. 384-393 ◽

Cited By ~ 25

Author(s):

Manuel Perea ◽

Jon Andoni Duñabeitia ◽

Manuel Carreiras

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Visual Word Recognition ◽

Priming Effect ◽

Letter Position ◽

Masked Priming ◽

Visual Word ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Precise Nature ◽

The Development of Cortical Sensitivity to Visual Word Forms

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.2011.21615 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 23 (9) ◽

pp. 2387-2399 ◽

Cited By ~ 104

Author(s):

Michal Ben-Shachar ◽

Robert F. Dougherty ◽

Gayle K. Deutsch ◽

Brian A. Wandell

Keyword(s):

Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽

Word Reading ◽

Visual Word ◽

Anatomical Location ◽

Age Related ◽

Fmri Study ◽

Rate Of Increase ◽

Word Forms ◽

Cortical Regions ◽

The Right

The ability to extract visual word forms quickly and efficiently is essential for using reading as a tool for learning. We describe the first longitudinal fMRI study to chart individual changes in cortical sensitivity to written words as reading develops. We conducted four annual measurements of brain function and reading skills in a heterogeneous group of children, initially 7–12 years old. The results show age-related increase in children's cortical sensitivity to word visibility in posterior left occipito-temporal sulcus (LOTS), nearby the anatomical location of the visual word form area. Moreover, the rate of increase in LOTS word sensitivity specifically correlates with the rate of improvement in sight word efficiency, a measure of speeded overt word reading. Other cortical regions, including V1, posterior parietal cortex, and the right homologue of LOTS, did not demonstrate such developmental changes. These results provide developmental support for the hypothesis that LOTS is part of the cortical circuitry that extracts visual word forms quickly and efficiently and highlight the importance of developing cortical sensitivity to word visibility in reading acquisition.

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Decoding and disrupting left midfusiform gyrus activity during word reading

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1604126113 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 113 (29) ◽

pp. 8162-8167 ◽

Cited By ~ 47

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.

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Treatment for Alexia With Agraphia Following Left Ventral Occipito-Temporal Damage: Strengthening Orthographic Representations Common to Reading and Spelling

Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research ◽

10.1044/2015_jslhr-l-14-0286 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 58 (5) ◽

pp. 1521-1537 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Esther S. Kim ◽

Kindle Rising ◽

Steven Z. Rapcsak ◽

Pélagie M. Beeson

Keyword(s):

Word Reading ◽

Treatment Approach ◽

Combined Treatment ◽

Case Series ◽

Therapeutic Effects ◽

Single Word ◽

Pure Alexia ◽

Text Reading ◽

Single Word Reading ◽

Reading And Spelling

Purpose Damage to left ventral occipito-temporal cortex can give rise to written language impairment characterized by pure alexia/letter-by-letter (LBL) reading, as well as surface alexia and agraphia. The purpose of this study was to examine the therapeutic effects of a combined treatment approach to address concurrent LBL reading with surface alexia/agraphia. Method Simultaneous treatment to address slow reading and errorful spelling was administered to 3 individuals with reading and spelling impairments after left ventral occipito-temporal damage due to posterior cerebral artery stroke. Single-word reading/spelling accuracy, reading latencies, and text reading were monitored as outcome measures for the combined effects of multiple oral re-reading treatment and interactive spelling treatment. Results After treatment, participants demonstrated faster and more accurate single-word reading and improved text-reading rates. Spelling accuracy also improved, particularly for untrained irregular words, demonstrating generalization of the trained interactive spelling strategy. Conclusion This case series characterizes concomitant LBL with surface alexia/agraphia and demonstrates a successful treatment approach to address both the reading and spelling impairment.

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The processing of lexical stress during visual word recognition: Typicality effects and orthographic correlates

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology ◽

10.1080/02724980443000782 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 59 (5) ◽

pp. 920-948 ◽

Cited By ~ 77

Author(s):

Joanne Arciuli ◽

Linda Cupples

Keyword(s):

Word Recognition ◽

Visual Word Recognition ◽

Word Reading ◽

Visual Word ◽

Lexical Stress ◽

Single Word ◽

Stress Assignment ◽

Word Level ◽

Disyllabic Words ◽

Single Word Reading

Many studies that have examined reading at the single-word level have been restricted to the processing of monosyllabic stimuli, and, as a result, lexical stress has not been widely investigated. In the experiments reported here, we used disyllabic words and nonwords to investigate the processing of lexical stress during visual word recognition. In Experiments 1 and 2, we found an effect of stress typicality in naming and lexical decision. Typically stressed words (trochaic nouns and iambic verbs) elicited fewer errors than atypically stressed words (iambic nouns and trochaic verbs). In Experiment 3, we carried out an analysis of 340 word endings and found clear orthographic correlates of both grammatical category and lexical stress in word endings. In Experiment 4, we demonstrated that readers are sensitive to these cues in their processing of nonwords during two tasks: sentence construction and stress assignment. We discuss the implications of these findings with regard to psycholinguistic models of single-word reading.

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Masked Translation Priming Effects With Highly Proficient Simultaneous Bilinguals

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000013 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 57 (2) ◽

pp. 98-107 ◽

Cited By ~ 90

Author(s):

Jon Andoni Duñabeitia ◽

Manuel Perea ◽

Manuel Carreiras

Keyword(s):

Lexical Decision ◽

Hierarchical Model ◽

Priming Effect ◽

Masked Priming ◽

The Other ◽

Memory Organization ◽

Priming Effects ◽

Bilingual Memory ◽

Translation Priming ◽

Masked Translation Priming

One essential issue for models of bilingual memory organization is to what degree the representation from one of the languages is shared with the other language. In this study, we examine whether there is a symmetrical translation priming effect with highly proficient, simultaneous bilinguals. We conducted a masked priming lexical decision experiment with cognate and noncognate translation equivalents. Results showed a significant masked translation priming effect for both cognates and noncognates, with a greater priming effect for cognates. Furthermore, the magnitude of the translation priming was similar in the two directions. Thus, highly fluent bilinguals do develop symmetrical between-language links, as predicted by the Revised Hierarchical model and the BIA+ model. We examine the implications of these results for models of bilingual memory.

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