Language Prediction Is Reflected by Coupling between Frontal Gamma and Posterior Alpha Oscillations

Readers and listeners actively predict upcoming words during language processing. These predictions might serve to support the unification of incoming words into sentence context and thus rely on interactions between areas in the language network. In the current magnetoencephalography study, participants read sentences that varied in contextual constraints so that the predictability of the sentence-final words was either high or low. Before the sentence-final words, we observed stronger alpha power suppression for the highly compared with low constraining sentences in the left inferior frontal cortex, left posterior temporal region, and visual word form area. Importantly, the temporal and visual word form area alpha power correlated negatively with left frontal gamma power for the highly constraining sentences. We suggest that the correlation between alpha power decrease in temporal language areas and left prefrontal gamma power reflects the initiation of an anticipatory unification process in the language network.

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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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The Relationship between Intrinsic Couplings of the Visual Word Form Area with Spoken Language Network and Reading Ability in Children and Adults

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnhum.2017.00327 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 11 ◽

Author(s):

Yu Li ◽

Linjun Zhang ◽

Zhichao Xia ◽

Jie Yang ◽

Hua Shu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Reading Ability ◽

Spoken Language ◽

Visual Word ◽

Word Form ◽

Visual Word Form Area ◽

The Relationship ◽

Language Network

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Innate connectivity patterns drive the development of the visual word form area

Scientific Reports ◽

10.1038/s41598-020-75015-7 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Jin Li ◽

David E. Osher ◽

Heather A. Hansen ◽

Zeynep M. Saygin

Keyword(s):

Functional Connectivity ◽

Functional Organization ◽

Visual Word ◽

Word Form ◽

Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽

Visual Word Form Area ◽

Human Connectome Project ◽

Connectivity Patterns ◽

Set Up ◽

Language Network

Abstract What determines the functional organization of cortex? One hypothesis is that innate connectivity patterns, either structural or functional connectivity, 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 functionally connected to proto language networks in neonates scanned within one week of birth. Using the data from the Human Connectone Project (HCP) and the Developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP), we calculated intrinsic functional connectivity during resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and found that neonates showed similar functional connectivity patterns to adults. We observed that (1) language regions connected more strongly with the putative VWFA than other adjacent ventral visual regions that also show foveal bias, and (2) 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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Intact reading ability in spite of a spatially distributed visual word form 'area' in an individual born without the left superior temporal lobe

10.1101/2021.09.15.460550 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jin Li ◽

Evelina Fedorenko ◽

Zeynep M. Saygin

Keyword(s):

Temporal Lobe ◽

Reading Ability ◽

Temporal Cortex ◽

Past Research ◽

Visual Word ◽

Word Form ◽

Visual Words ◽

Visual Word Form Area ◽

Ventral Temporal Cortex ◽

Language Network

The visual word form area (VWFA) is an experience-dependent brain region in the left ventral temporal cortex of literate adults that responds selectively to visual words. Why does it emerge in this stereotyped location? Past research has shown that the VWFA is preferentially connected to the left-lateralized frontotemporal language network. However, it remains unclear whether the presence of a typical language network and its connections with ventral temporal cortex (VTC) are critical for the VWFA's emergence, and whether alternative functional architectures may support reading ability. We explored these questions in an individual (EG) born without the left superior temporal lobe but exhibiting normal reading ability. Using fMRI, we recorded brain activation to visual words, objects, faces, and scrambled words in EG and neurotypical controls. We did not observe word selectivity either in EG's right homotope of the VWFA (rVWFA)—the most expected location given that EG's language network is right-lateralized—or in her spared left VWFA (lVWFA), in the presence of typical face selectivity in both the right and left fusiform face area (rFFA, lFFA). Interestingly, multivariate pattern analyses revealed voxels in EG's rVWFA and lVWFA that showed 1) higher within- than between- category correlations for words (e.g., Words-Words>Words-Faces), and 2) higher within-category correlations for words than other categories (e.g., Words-Words>Faces-Faces). These results suggest that a typical left-hemisphere language network may be necessary for the emergence of focal word selectivity within ventral temporal cortex, and that orthographic processing may depend on a distributed neural code, which appears capable of supporting reading ability.

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Simulating the emergence of the Visual Word Form Area: Recycling a convolutional neural network for reading

10.1101/2021.02.15.431235 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

T. Hannagan ◽

A. Agrawal ◽

L. Cohen ◽

S. Dehaene

Keyword(s):

Neural Network ◽

Convolutional Neural Network ◽

Language Processing ◽

Visual Pathway ◽

Visual Word ◽

Letter Recognition ◽

Word Form ◽

Invariant Representation ◽

Visual Word Form Area ◽

Ventral Visual Pathway

AbstractThe visual word form area (VWFA) is a region of human inferotemporal cortex that emerges at a fixed location in occipitotemporal cortex during reading acquisition, and systematically responds to written words in literate individuals. According to the neuronal recycling hypothesis, this region arises through the repurposing, for letter recognition, of a subpart of the ventral visual pathway initially involved in face and object recognition. Furthermore, according to the biased connectivity hypothesis, its universal localization is due to pre-existing connections from this subregion to areas involved in spoken language processing. Here, we evaluate those hypotheses in an explicit computational model. We trained a deep convolutional neural network of the ventral visual pathway, first to categorize pictures, and then to recognize written words invariantly for case, font and size. We show that the model can account for many properties of the VWFA, particularly when a subset of units possesses a biased connectivity to word output units. The network develops a sparse, invariant representation of written words, based on a restricted set of reading-selective units. Their activation mimics several properties of the VWFA, and their lesioning causes a reading-specific deficit. Our simulation fleshes out the neuronal recycling hypothesis, and make several testable predictions concerning the neural code for written words.

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