Sequential then interactive processing of letters and words in the left fusiform gyrus. Nat Commun 2012;3:1284
Date
12/20/2012Pubmed ID
23250414Pubmed Central ID
PMC4407686DOI
10.1038/ncomms2220Scopus ID
2-s2.0-84871806944 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 113 CitationsAbstract
Despite decades of cognitive, neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies, it is unclear if letters are identified before word-form encoding during reading, or if letters and their combinations are encoded simultaneously and interactively. Here using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show that a 'letter-form' area (responding more to consonant strings than false fonts) can be distinguished from an immediately anterior 'visual word-form area' in ventral occipito-temporal cortex (responding more to words than consonant strings). Letter-selective magnetoencephalographic responses begin in the letter-form area ∼60 ms earlier than word-selective responses in the word-form area. Local field potentials confirm the latency and location of letter-selective responses. This area shows increased high-gamma power for ∼400 ms, and strong phase-locking with more anterior areas supporting lexico-semantic processing. These findings suggest that during reading, visual stimuli are first encoded as letters before their combinations are encoded as words. Activity then rapidly spreads anteriorly, and the entire network is engaged in sustained integrative processing.
Author List
Thesen T, McDonald CR, Carlson C, Doyle W, Cash S, Sherfey J, Felsovalyi O, Girard H, Barr W, Devinsky O, Kuzniecky R, Halgren EAuthor
Chad Carlson MD Interim Chair, Professor in the Neurology department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
ElectroencephalographyHumans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Magnetoencephalography
Occipital Lobe
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Photic Stimulation
Reading
Semantics
Temporal Lobe
