Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Attention to single letters activates left extrastriate cortex.

D L Flowers1, K Jones, K Noble

  • 1Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA.

Neuroimage
|March 10, 2004
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

The relationship between brain structure and proficiency in reading and mathematics in children, adolescents, and emerging adults.

Developmental cognitive neuroscience·2020
Same author

An fMRI study of coherent visual motion processing in children and adults.

NeuroImage·2018
Same author

Neuroanatomical Evidence in Support of the Bilingual Advantage Theory.

Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991)·2015
Same author

Dyslexic children lack word selectivity gradients in occipito-temporal and inferior frontal cortex.

NeuroImage. Clinical·2015
Same author

Lying about facial recognition: an fMRI study.

Brain and cognition·2008
Same author

Emerging issues in the genetics of dyslexia: a methodological preview.

Journal of learning disabilities·2004

Researchers identified a specific brain area for letter recognition in the left extrastriate cortex. This finding may aid in the early identification of reading disabilities.

Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Brain imaging studies of reading often show activity in the left extrastriate cortex.
  • Reading involves semantic, phonological, and orthographic processing, influenced by reading skill.
  • Single letter processing is largely automatized and less affected by later linguistic experience than word processing.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To isolate brain activity related to single letter recognition.
  • To differentiate letter-specific processing from processing of other visual features like symbols and colors.
  • To identify a potential neural marker for early reading disability.

Main Methods:

  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan skilled readers.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Participants attended to different aspects (letters, symbols, colors) of identical stimuli in separate sessions.
  • Stimuli were designed to minimize word-level lexical processing.

    • Main Results:

    • Shared activation in the ventral extrastriate cortex for alphabetic and non-alphabetic features was observed.
    • A distinct, letter-specific area was identified in the left extrastriate cortex (Brodmann's Area 37).
    • This letter-specific area was located lateral to the visual word form area.

    Conclusions:

    • Cortical responses to letter recognition can be isolated from figural and color processing.
    • A specialized brain region for letter recognition was identified, distinct from word form areas.
    • This finding has practical implications for the early identification of reading disabilities.