The visual word form area: a prelexical representation of visual words in the fusiform gyrus.

Full 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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Author information

Author/s: Dehaene, Stanislas (S); Le Clec'H, Gurvan (G); Poline, Jean-Baptiste (JB); Le Bihan, Denis (D); Cohen, Laurent (L);

Affiliation: Unité INSERM 334, France.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Neuroreport (Neuroreport), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Mar; vol 13 (issue 3) : pp 321-5

Dates: Created 2002/04/03; Completed 2002/05/02; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 11930131, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Reaction Time - physiology
Reading
Speech Perception - physiology

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