The left ventral occipito-temporal response to words depends on language lateralization but not on visual familiarity
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The sensitivity of the left ventral occipito-temporal (vOT) cortex to visual word processing has triggered a considerable debate about the role of this region in reading. One popular view is that the left vOT underlies the perceptual expertise needed for rapid skilled reading. Because skilled reading breaks down when words are presented in a visually unfamiliar format, we tested this hypothesis by analyzing vOT responses to horizontally presented words (familiar format) and vertically presented words (unfamiliar format). In addition, we compared the activity in participants with left and right cerebral dominance for language generation. Our results revealed 1) that the vOT activity during reading is lateralized to the same side as the inferior frontal activity during word generation, 2) that vertically and horizontally presented words triggered the same amount of activity in the vOT of the dominant hemisphere, but 3) that there was significantly more activity for vertically presented words in the vOT of the nondominant hemisphere. We suggest that the reading-related activity in vOT reflects the integration of general perceptual processes with language processing in the anterior brain regions and is not limited to skilled reading in the familiar horizontal format.
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The left ventral occipitotemporal cortex contributes to written word recognition by integrating bottom-up generic visual processing with top-down influences from phonological and semantic areas.
“A complementary perspective is that the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex contributes to written word recognition by integrating bottom up (feed forward) generic visual processing with top-down influences from phonological, and semantic areas (Cai et al., 2010; Hellyer et al., 2011; Price and Devlin, 2011; Wang et al., 2011; Woodhead et al., 2011a).”
From A review and synthesis of the first 20years of PET and fMRI studies of heard speech, spoken language and reading (2012) · cites this paper as Cai et al., 2010
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- Authors
- Cai, Q., Paulignan, Y., Brysbaert, M., Ibarrola, D., & Nazir, T. A.
- Affiliations
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Ghent University (BE)
- Université de Lyon (FR)
- Venue
- Cerebral Cortex
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2009-08-14
- Volume
- 20
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1153-1163
- ISSN
- 1047-3211 (ISSN-L)
- 1460-2199
- OpenAlex
- W2116019115
- Cited by
- 114
- References
- 65
- Citations by year
- 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 11.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Cerebral Cortex (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- HAL (submittedVersion)
- 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 › Hemispheric Asymmetry in Neuroscience
- Keywords
- visual word processing, language lateralization, reading, language dominance, inferior frontal cortex, word production, perceptual expertise, hemispheric lateralization
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Analysis of Variance, Brain Mapping, Decision Making, Electroencephalography, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Language, Functional Laterality, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Occipital Lobe, Oxygen, Photic Stimulation, Reading, Temporal Lobe, Vocabulary, Recognition, Psychology, Young Adult
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