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 How do bilinguals control their use of languages?

2002 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 214-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ardi Roelofs
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Task Demands ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Design Decisions ◽  
Processing Component ◽  
Visual Word Processing ◽  
New Processing

Dijkstra and Van Heuven sketch the BIA+ model for visual word processing in bilinguals. BIA+ differs in a number of respects from its predecessor, BIA, the leading implemented model of bilingual visual word recognition. Notably, BIA+ contains a new processing component that deals with task demands. BIA+ has not been computationally implemented yet and design decisions still need to be taken. In this commentary, I outline a proposal for modeling the control of tasks in BIA+.

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.

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 The Visual Word Form Area natively processes shape sequences: Implications for developmental dyslexia

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol Whitney ◽  
Paddy Ross ◽  
Zhiheng Zhou ◽  
Lars Strother
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Recognition System ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Phonological Decoding ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Occipitotemporal Cortex ◽  
Whole Word

The Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) is a cortical region that adapts to support fluent word recognition. Surprisingly, the region of ventrolateral occipitotemporal cortex that becomes VWFA is specialized for processing the motion of inanimate objects that change shape. Such motion is neurally analyzed as a temporal sequence of shape 'snapshots'. We have proposed that the VWFA develops in this region because letter representations are serially activated in occipitotemporal cortex during typical reading acquisition. Therefore, the region that analyzes inanimate shape sequences is recruited to recognize letter sequences. We discuss the implications of this account for developmental dyslexia. In particular, inability to focus attention down to a single letter may preclude the serial letter selection that typically drives VWFA formation. Such a deficit would also interfere with acquisition of cortical letter-phoneme connections. Instead, compensated dyslexics employ the ventromedial object-recognition system for whole-word recognition, and the subcortical procedural system for phonological decoding.

VISUAL WORD RECOGNITION IN BILINGUALS

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-29
Author(s):  
Max R. Freeman ◽  
Viorica Marian
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movements ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Visual Display ◽  
English Word ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
L2 Proficiency ◽  
Rule Violation ◽  
Input Modality ◽  
L2 Processing

Abstract A bilingual’s language system is highly interactive. When hearing a second language (L2), bilinguals access native-language (L1) words that share sounds across languages. In the present study, we examine whether input modality and L2 proficiency moderate the extent to which bilinguals activate L1 phonotactic constraints (i.e., rules for combining speech sounds) during L2 processing. Eye movements of English monolinguals and Spanish–English bilinguals were tracked as they searched for a target English word in a visual display. On critical trials, displays included a target that conflicted with the Spanish vowel-onset rule (e.g., spa), as well as a competitor containing the potentially activated “e” onset (e.g., egg). The rule violation was processed either in the visual modality (Experiment 1) or audio-visually (Experiment 2). In both experiments, bilinguals with lower L2 proficiency made more eye movements to competitors than fillers. Findings suggest that bilinguals who have lower L2 proficiency access L1 phonotactic constraints during L2 visual word processing with and without auditory input of the constraint-conflicting structure (e.g., spa). We conclude that the interactivity between a bilingual’s two languages is not limited to words that share form across languages, but also extends to sublexical, rule-based structures.

scholarly journals Taxi vs. Taksi: On Orthographic Word Recognition in the Left Ventral Occipitotemporal Cortex

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 1584-1594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Kronbichler ◽  
Jürgen Bergmann ◽  
Florian Hutzler ◽  
Wolfgang Staffen ◽  
Alois Mair ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Functional Neuroimaging ◽  
Imaging Study ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Decision Task ◽  
Familiarity Effect ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Orthographic Representations ◽  
Occipitotemporal Cortex

The importance of the left occipitotemporal cortex for visual word processing is highlighted by numerous functional neuroimaging studies, but the precise function of the visual word form area (VWFA) in this brain region is still under debate. The present functional magnetic resonance imaging study varied orthographic familiarity independent from phonological-semantic familiarity by presenting orthographically familiar and orthographically unfamiliar forms (pseudohomophones) of the same words in a phonological lexical decision task. Consistent with orthographic word recognition in the VWFA, we found lower activation for familiar compared with unfamiliar forms, but no difference between pseudohomophones and pseudowords. This orthographic familiarity effect in the VWFA differed from the phonological familiarity effect in left frontal regions, where phonologically unfamiliar pseudowords led to higher activation than phonologically familiar pseudohomophones. We suggest that the VWFA not only computes letter string representations but also hosts word-specific orthographic representations. These representations function as recognition units with the effect that letter strings that readily match with stored representations lead to less activation than letter strings that do not.

scholarly journals Do ‘blacheap’ and ‘subcheap’ both prime ‘cheap’? An investigation of morphemic status and position in early visual word processing

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (8) ◽  
pp. 1645-1654 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Heathcote ◽  
Kate Nation ◽  
Anne Castles ◽  
Elisabeth Beyersmann
Keyword(s):  
Word Recognition ◽  
Lexical Decision ◽  
Visual Word Recognition ◽  
Word Processing ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Early Stages ◽  
Complex Words ◽  
Morphological Relationship ◽  
Prime Target ◽  
Real Complex

Much research suggests that words comprising more than one morpheme are decomposed into morphemes in the early stages of visual word recognition. In the present masked primed lexical decision study, we investigated whether or not decomposition occurs for both prefixed and suffixed nonwords and for nonwords which comprise a stem and a non-morphemic ending. Prime–target relatedness was manipulated in three ways: (1) primes shared a semantically transparent morphological relationship with the target (e.g., subcheap-CHEAP, cheapize-CHEAP); (2) primes comprised targets and non-affixal letter strings (e.g., blacheap-CHEAP, cheapstry-CHEAP); and (3) primes were real, complex words unrelated to the target (e.g., miscall-CHEAP, idealism-CHEAP). Both affixed and non-affixed nonwords significantly facilitated the recognition of their stem targets, suggesting that embedded stems are activated independently of whether they are accompanied by a real affix or a non-affix. There was no difference in priming between stems being embedded in initial and final string positions, indicating that embedded stem activation is position-independent. Finally, more priming was observed in the semantically interpretable affixed condition than in the non-affixed condition, which points to a semantic licensing mechanism during complex novel word processing.

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.

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