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Processing of parafoveally presented words. An fMRI study
Lorenzo Vignali1, Stefan Hawelka2, Florian Hutzler2
1Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC), University of Trento, 38068 Rovereto, TN, Italy; International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA), 34136 Trieste, Italy; Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg, Hellbrunnerstr. 34, 5020 Salzburg, Austria.
Neuroimage
|August 31, 2018
Summary
This fMRI study reveals that reading parafoveal words accesses sublexical phonological information, influenced by foveal task difficulty. Lexical information is only accessed when processing the central word is easy.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psycholinguistics
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Reading involves processing both foveal and parafoveal visual information.
- Understanding the type of information extracted from parafoveal words is crucial for models of reading.
- Previous research suggests parafoveal processing can influence reading behavior and neural activity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural correlates of parafoveal preprocessing during reading using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
- To determine the level of information (lexical vs. sublexical) accessible from upcoming, unfixed words.
- To examine how foveal processing difficulty modulates parafoveal information extraction.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed a lexical decision flanker task during fMRI scanning.
- The study manipulated the orthographic constraints of parafoveal words (initial trigram) and the difficulty of foveal stimuli.
- Behavioral data and brain activity (hemodynamic response) were recorded.
Main Results:
- Behavioral performance indicated that parafoveal information extraction (up to the lexical level) was possible only when foveal stimuli were easy to process.
- When foveal stimuli were difficult, only constraining trigrams of parafoveal words modulated performance.
- fMRI data showed no parafoveal lexicality effects, but did reveal modulation of the left supramarginal gyrus by trigram constraints, suggesting sublexical processing.
Conclusions:
- Parafoveal processing during reading primarily involves sublexical (phonological) information, reflected in left supramarginal gyrus activation.
- Lexical-level access from parafoveal words is limited and dependent on the ease of foveal word processing.
- The absence of a parafoveal lexicality effect may be due to task demands or differences from studies showing electrophysiological effects of semantic congruency.
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