The ventral visual stream for reading converges on the transmodal language network.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Psycholinguistics

Background:

• Reading involves both sensory-specific visual processing and transmodal language functions.
• The visual word form area (VWFA) in the inferotemporal cortex (ITC) shows properties of both visual and language systems, causing debate about its role.

Purpose of the Study:

• To clarify the role of the VWFA in reading using precision functional mapping.
• To investigate the specialization of visual regions along the ITC in response to written stimuli.

Main Methods:

• Characterized visual regions in the ITC responding to orthographic forms.
• Conducted network mapping to identify connections between visual regions and the language network (LANG).
• Analyzed the selectivity of these regions to different visual stimuli.

Main Results:

• Identified an "orthographic stream" in the ITC responding to written forms.
• The anterior part of this stream connected to the LANG network and responded to meaningful speech.
• This anterior region was more selective for text, unlike more posterior regions activated by similar images.

Conclusions:

• Connections to the language network drive specialization in the anterior orthographic stream for reading.
• This region acts as a crucial interface between visual and transmodal language systems.
• The findings support a model where the LANG network integrates visual information for reading.