The DOI matches its Crossref record; 45 of the 45 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Functional MRI evidence for an abstract, not perceptual, word-form area
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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In the citing paper
“Brain imaging studies reliably localize a region of visual cortex that is especially responsive to visual words.”
From The visual word form area: expertise for reading in the fusiform gyrus (2003) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“This finding is robust enough to identify a significant peak of activation in over 90% of individual subject scans, with a standard deviation of , 5 mm [8-11] (Fig. 1).”
From The visual word form area: expertise for reading in the fusiform gyrus (2003) · cites this paper as [10]
In the citing paper
“For example, the VWFA shows equally robust fMRI responses when words (versus control stimuli) are presented in a familiar format (e.g. 'table') and in a perceptually novel mixed-case format (e.g. 'tAbLe') [10].”
From The visual word form area: expertise for reading in the fusiform gyrus (2003) · cites this paper as [10]
Citations
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Cited by
The visual word form area: expertise for reading in the fusiform gyrus
McCandliss, B. D., Cohen, L., & Dehaene, S. (2003) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(03)00134-7 · Cited by 1,489
Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area
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Symbol Interdependency in Symbolic and Embodied Cognition
Louwerse, M. M. (2011) · Topics in Cognitive Science · doi:10.1111/j.1756-8765.2010.01106.x · Cited by 399
Reward Reduces Conflict by Enhancing Attentional Control and Biasing Visual Cortical Processing
Padmala, S., & Pessoa, L. (2011) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00011 · Cited by 362
Tuning of the human left fusiform gyrus to sublexical orthographic structure
Binder, J. R., Medler, D. A., Westbury, C. F., Liebenthal, E., & Buchanan, L. (2006) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2006.06.053 · Cited by 286
The development of reading impairment: A cognitive neuroscience model
McCandliss, B. D., & Noble, K. G. (2003) · Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews · doi:10.1002/mrdd.10080 · Cited by 265
Impact of state anxiety on the interaction between threat monitoring and cognition
Choi, J. M., Padmala, S., & Pessoa, L. (2012) · NeuroImage · doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.08.102 · Cited by 137
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Encoding in the Visual Word Form Area: An fMRI Adaptation Study of Words versus Handwriting
Barton, J. J. S., Fox, C. J., Sekunova, A., & Iaria, G. (2010) · Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1162/jocn.2009.21286 · Cited by 49
Development of ventral stream representations for single letters
Turkeltaub, P. E., Flowers, D. L., Lyon, L. G., & Eden, G. F. (2008) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1196/annals.1416.026 · Cited by 34
Metadata
- Authors
- Polk, T. A., & Farah, M. J.
- Affiliations
- University of Michigan (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychology General
- Published
- 2002
- Volume
- 131
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 65-72
- ISSN
- 0096-3445 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2222
- OpenAlex
- W2026438464
- Cited by
- 169
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 10
- FWCI
- 25.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychology General (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (R01DC04205, R01DC004205)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Reading and Literacy Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- orthographic regularity, pseudowords, orthographic processing, case alternation, word reading
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Brain Mapping, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Models, Psychological, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Psycholinguistics, Reading, Visual Cortex
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Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
