The DOI matches its Crossref record; 24 of the 24 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The visual word form area: a prelexical representation of visual words in the fusiform gyrus
Abstract
Event-related fMRI was used to test the hypothesis that the visual word form area in the left fusiform gyrus holds a modality-specific and prelexical representation of visual words. Subjects were engaged in a repetition-detection task on pairs of words or pronounceable pseudo-words that could be written or spoken. The visual word form area responded only to written stimuli, not to spoken stimuli, independently of their semantic content. We propose that the occasional activation of the fusiform gyrus when listening to spoken words is due to the topdown recruitment of visual orthographic or object representations.
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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 [11]
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 [11]
In the citing paper
“Passive presentation of spoken words elicits no response in this region [11].”
From The visual word form area: expertise for reading in the fusiform gyrus (2003) · cites this paper as [11]
In the citing paper
“TheVWFAisgenerallyinsensitive to factors that influence lexical access, such as contrasts between high- and lowfrequency words [24], or between real and pseudowords, as revealed by event-related fMRI analyses [11,23,25].”
From The visual word form area: expertise for reading in the fusiform gyrus (2003) · cites this paper as [11]
In the citing paper
“A large number of studies, using various methods, have evidenced a reproducible activation of the left fusiform gyrus during reading.”
From Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area (2004) · cites this paper as Dehaene et al., 2002
In the citing paper
“Activation in this region can be identified merely by contrasting word reading relative to rest, either with PET or with fMRI (Beauregard et al., 1997; Brunswick et al., 1999; Dehaene et al., 2002; Fiez et al., 1999; Paulesu et al., 2000; Wagner et al., 1998).”
From Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area (2004) · cites this paper as Dehaene et al., 2002
In the citing paper
“In agreement with our hypotheses, in every subject, the left posterior fusiform gyrus was activated by visual words but there was no trace of activation by spoken words.”
From Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area (2004) · cites this paper as Dehaene et al., 2002
In the citing paper
“Several fMRI papers have further shown that this area can be identified in single subjects (Cohen et al., 2000, 2002; Dehaene et al., 2002; Gauthier et al., 2000; Puce et al., 1996).”
From Specialization within the ventral stream: the case for the visual word form area (2004) · cites this paper as Dehaene et al., 2002
Citations
Cites
Cohen, L., Dehaene, S., Naccache, L., Lehéricy, S., Dehaene-Lambertz, G., Hénaff, M.-A., & Michel, F. (2000) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/123.2.291 · Cited by 1,954
Inferotemporal cortex and object vision
Tanaka, K. (1996) · Annual Review of Neuroscience · doi:10.1146/annurev.ne.19.030196.000545 · Cited by 1,402
Human temporal lobe activation by speech and nonspeech sounds
Binder, J. R. (2000) · Cerebral Cortex · doi:10.1093/cercor/10.5.512 · Cited by 1,345
Cerebral mechanisms of word masking and unconscious repetition priming
Dehaene, S., Naccache, L., Cohen, L., Bihan, D. L., Mangin, J.-F., Poline, J.-B., & Rivière, D. (2001) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/89551 · Cited by 1,305
THE ANATOMY OF PHONOLOGICAL AND SEMANTIC PROCESSING IN NORMAL SUBJECTS
Démonet, J., Chollet, F., Ramsay, S. C., Cardebat, D., Nespoulous, J., WISE, R., Rascol, A., & Frackowiak, R. S. J. (1992) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/115.6.1753 · Cited by 1,157
Puce, A., Allison, T., Asgari, M., Gore, J. C., & McCarthy, G. (1996) · The Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1523/jneurosci.16-16-05205.1996 · Cited by 987
The bilingual brain. Proficiency and age of acquisition of the second language
Perani, D. (1998) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/121.10.1841 · Cited by 736
Neuroimaging studies of word reading
Fiez, J. A., & Petersen, S. E. (1998) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.95.3.914 · Cited by 727
Distributed Neural Systems for the Generation of Visual Images
Ishai, A., Ungerleider, L. G., & Haxby, J. V. (2000) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/s0896-6273(00)00168-9 · Cited by 579
Explicit and implicit processing of words and pseudowords by adult developmental dyslexics
Brunswick, N., McCrory, E., Price, C. J., Frith, C. D., & Frith, U. (1999) · Brain · doi:10.1093/brain/122.10.1901 · Cited by 553
Cited by
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Items 701–727 of 727
(2014) · Studies in written language and literacy · doi:10.1075/swll.14.c24
(2014) · Studies in written language and literacy · doi:10.1075/swll.14.c19
(2014) · Studies in written language and literacy · doi:10.1075/swll.14.c18
(2014) · Studies in written language and literacy · doi:10.1075/swll.14.si
(2014) · Studies in written language and literacy · doi:10.1075/swll.14.ni
(2014) · Studies in written language and literacy · doi:10.1075/swll.14.p4
(2014) · Studies in written language and literacy · doi:10.1075/swll.14.c15
(2014) · Studies in written language and literacy · doi:10.1075/swll.14.refs
(2014) · Studies in written language and literacy · doi:10.1075/swll.14.p3-sum
Graf, K., Jamous, R., Bluschke, A., & Beste, C. (2025) · NeuroImage Clinical · doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2025.103905 · Cited by 2
“…management of event-files (Eggert et al., 2023; Kühn et al., 2011) and further reflects the visual processing of the stimuli of the task (i.e., identification and categorization of visual stimuli; Dehaene et al., 2002; Devlin et al., 2006; Goodale et al., 2005; Grill-Spector & Weiner, 2014).”
Funktionelle Neuroanatomie der Sprache
Amunts, K., & Heim, S. (2013) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-29800-4_26
Expertise accounts for inversion effect
Feng, J., Gong, J., Huang, Y., Wei, Y., Zhang, W., & Zhang, Y. (2012) · Technische Universität Dortmund Eldorado (Technische Universität Dortmund) · doi:10.17877/de290r-4962
感觉通道与经验剥夺对阅读神经基础的影响——来自盲文触觉阅读的证据
Peiqi, L. I., ZHANG, Y., & Mengyu, T. I. A. N. (2026) · Advances in Psychological Science · doi:10.3724/sp.j.1042.2026.0271
“…Lane et al., 2015) 。当使用独立成分分析 (Independent component analysis ， ICA) 识别静息状态下的语言网 络时，先天盲人的语言网络包括了外侧枕叶皮层 (Watkins et al., 2012) (Baker et al., 2007; Dehaene et al., 2002, 2004) 。 VWFA 对视觉文字的词形信息和亚词汇正字法结构敏感， 比如字母身份 (identity) 、字母顺序，以及短字母串的词汇状态等 (Dehaene et al., 2004, 2005; Glezer et al., 2009,…”
Attention visuelle et traitements pré-orthographiques dans la lecture et la dyslexie
Lobier, M. (2011) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/49ce8fbfzcaa3z49e7za534z3a2b5910d8f8
Giubergia, A., Lampis, V., Mauri, C., Montano, F., Ferrazzi, G., Castellaro, M., Bertoldo, A., & Peruzzo, D. (2026) · Behavioral and Brain Functions · doi:10.1186/s12993-026-00330-4
“The ventral pathway is specialised in automatic, parallel processing of letter strings [4, 5], allowing efficient access to whole-word orthographic and lexical representations in skilled readers, rather than serial identification of each letter.”
Mental Lexicon Architecture and Morphological Processing of French Verbs
Estivalet, G. L. (2016) · theses.fr (ABES) · doi:10.70675/419ee61dz01b6z4b21za51dzc7d50e436743 · Cited by 1
“Therefore, in visual word recognition, the sensorial input first activated the primary visual cortex in the occipital lobe, and orthographic features are processed mainly in the left VWFA in the fusiform gyrus (Dehaene & Cohen, 2011; Dehaene et al., 2002).”
BackgroundBrain signatures of semantic activation for words that do not existPreprint
Bonandrini, R., Amenta, S., Sulpizio, S., Basso, G., Marelli, M., & Tettamanti, M. (2026) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.64898/2026.04.29.721646
Halphen, J., Dayal, Y. S., Laurie, C., Ahmadzade, M., Wynne, D., & Ghasemi-Rad, M. (2026) · World Journal of Radiology · doi:10.4329/wjr.120177
The Universal Tool: A Working Theory of Generative Cognitive Development Across the LifespanPreprint
Mohamed, R. (2026) · OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) · doi:10.5281/zenodo.20769604
Limb-selective regions in the lateral temporal lobe shrink from childhood to adulthood
Cohnen, S., Kahler, L., Yun, S. D., Konrad, K., & Nordt, M. (2026) · Brain Structure and Function · doi:10.1007/s00429-026-03152-2 · Cited by 1
“In adults, higher activity for pseudowords compared to real words (Dehaene et al. 2002) and for low-frequency words compared to high-frequency words (Kronbichler et al. 2004; Woolnough et al. 2020) in word-selective regions has been reported repeatedly.”
Seo, M. S., & Dennis, N. A. (2026) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2026.106864 · Cited by 1
Qian, Y. (2026) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-38971-9_737-1
Occipito-temporal contributions to reading
Duncan, K. J. K. (2010) · UCL Discovery (University College London)
Metadata
- Authors
- Dehaene, S., Le Clec’H, G., Poline, J.-B., Le Bihan, D., & Cohen, L.
- Affiliations
- Inserm (FR)
- Institut de Biologie et de Chimie des Protéines (FR)
- Venue
- Neuroreport
- Published
- 2002-03
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 321-325
- ISSN
- 0959-4965 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2066530833
- Cited by
- 727
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 21 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 18 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 69 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 33 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 32 · 2015: 37 · 2014: 75 · 2013: 40 · 2012: 29
- FWCI
- 59.99
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Neuroreport (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- 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 › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Keywords
- visual word form area, fusiform gyrus, modality-specific processing, visual word recognition, spoken word processing, repetition detection, orthographic representation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Cerebral Cortex, Female, Humans, Image Processing, Computer-Assisted, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Reaction Time, Reading, Speech Perception
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