Functional MRI evidence for an abstract, not perceptual, word-form area.

Thad A. Polk · Martha J. Farah

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Reading and Literacy Development Visual perception and processing mechanisms Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism

Abstract

Previous studies have found an area in left ventral visual cortex that responds more to words and pseudowords than to consonant strings. Does this area respond to the perceptual form of wordlike stimuli, or is it responding to some more abstract, linguistic property, such as orthographic regularity (i.e., conformity with the spelling rules of the language)? During a functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, participants read alternating-case words and pseudowords, which are orthographically regular but are perceptually unfamiliar. These stimuli activated the same area that was activated by pure-case words and pseudowords. These results suggest that the response of the so-called word-form area is not based on perceptual familiarity but rather on some more abstract feature such as orthographic regularity.

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References

2000The visual word form area 1990Activation of Extrastriate and Frontal Cortical Areas by Visual Words and Word-Like Stimuli 2000A cultural effect on brain function 1980WORD-FORM DYSLEXIA 1994Brain activity during reading The effects of exposure duration and task 1997Phonological and orthographic components of word recognition. A PET- rCBF study 1999Three Distinct Ventral Occipitotemporal Regions for Reading and Object Naming 1998A multimodal language region in the ventral visual pathway

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