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Explaining left lateralization for words in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex.

Mohamed L Seghier¹, Cathy J Price

¹Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK. m.seghier@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|October 14, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Left lateralization in the ventral occipitotemporal (vOT) region during reading is not due to increased left-hemisphere activity. Instead, it results from decreased right vOT function, influenced by visual and semantic factors depending on the specific vOT subregion.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Science
Psycholinguistics

Background:

The ventral occipitotemporal (vOT) cortex shows left lateralization for written words, suggesting a specialized role in reading.
This lateralization has been attributed to visual feature processing, visual word form selectivity, or higher-level language processing.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the underlying causes of left lateralized vOT responses for words.
To determine whether this lateralization is driven by visual features, word form selectivity, or semantic processing.

Main Methods:

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used in 82 skilled readers.
Participants performed different tasks involving words and nonlinguistic visual stimuli.
Activation and lateralization patterns in the vOT region were analyzed.

Main Results:

Increased left lateralization for words was primarily due to reduced activation in the right vOT, not increased left vOT activation.
The factors influencing vOT lateralization varied across subregions: posterior vOT (spatial frequency), anterior vOT (semantic demands), and middle vOT (visual expertise and semantics).

Conclusions:

Left lateralized vOT activation during reading does not necessarily signify increased left vOT processing.
This lateralization is a consequence of decreased right vOT function.
The determinants of vOT lateralization are complex, involving both visual and semantic factors modulated by the specific vOT subregion.