Learning to Read Increases the Informativeness of Distributed Ventral Temporal Responses

Nordt, Marisa; Gomez, Jesse; Natu, Vaidehi; Jeska, Brianna; Barnett, Michael; Grill-Spector, Kalanit

doi:10.1093/cercor/bhy178

Cited by 22 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 61 publications

(103 reference statements)

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“…Thus, representations for both words and faces need to cooperate with (i.e., be connected to and, hence, adjacent to) representations of central visual information; as a result, in both hemispheres, words and faces compete for neural space in areas adjacent to retinotopic cortex in which information from central vision is encoded (Hasson, Levy, Behrmann, Hendler, & Malach, 2002;Roberts et al, 2013;Woodhead, Wise, Sereno, & Leech, 2011). These areas are sculpted further over development (Gomez et al, 2018;Nordt et al, 2019) and end up being labeled the VWFA in the LH and the FFA in the RH, although there is generally bilateral activation to both visual classes (see Figure 3).…”

Section: A Distributed Account Of Hemispheric Organization Of Face Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hemispheric Organization for Visual Object Recognition: A Theoretical Account and Empirical Evidence

Behrmann

Plaut

2020

Perception

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Despite the similarity in structure, the hemispheres of the human brain have somewhat different functions. A traditional view of hemispheric organization asserts that there are independent and largely lateralized domain-specific regions in ventral occipitotemporal (VOTC), specialized for the recognition of distinct classes of objects. Here, we offer an alternative account of the organization of the hemispheres, with a specific focus on face and word recognition. This alternative account relies on three computational principles: distributed representations and knowledge, cooperation and competition between representations, and topography and proximity. The crux is that visual recognition results from a network of regions with graded functional specialization that is distributed across both hemispheres. Specifically, the claim is that face recognition, which is acquired relatively early in life, is processed by VOTC regions in both hemispheres. Once literacy is acquired, word recognition, which is co-lateralized with language areas, primarily engages the left VOTC and, consequently, face recognition is primarily, albeit not exclusively, mediated by the right VOTC. We review psychological and neural evidence from a range of studies conducted with normal and brain-damaged adults and children and consider findings which challenge this account. Last, we offer suggestions for future investigations whose findings may further refine this account.

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Section: A Distributed Account Of Hemispheric Organization Of Face Anmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hemispheric Organization for Visual Object Recognition: A Theoretical Account and Empirical Evidence

Behrmann

Plaut

2020

Perception

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“…In an fMRI study that examined the instantiation of new Visual Word Forms by training subjects on a set of pseudowords, effects for trained versus untrained pseudowords were found only in the lateral-FG/OTS/ITG (Glezer et al, 2015), indicating that the medial FG does not house Visual Word Forms. Furthermore, across reading development, distributed fMRI responses to letter strings become more informative and distinctive within VLOTC, but not within VMOTC (Nordt et al, 2018), again indicating the Visual Word Forms do not develop in the medial FG.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 97%

“…Studies of selectivity for object size have found that the VLOTC has a foveal bias and prefers small objects, and the VMOTC has a peripheral bias and prefers large objects (Hasson et al, 2003;Konkle & Caramazza, 2013;Konkle & Oliva, 2012). Could these biases explain the VLOTC location of the VWFA, as suggested by Nordt et al (2018)? The VMOTC also responds strongly to small objects, such as tools and individual letters (Beauchamp & Martin, 2007;Creem-Regehr & Lee, 2005;James et al, 2005).…”

Section: Alternative Accountsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A novel hypothesis for the original functionality of the Visual Word Form Area: Processing shape sequences

Whitney¹,

Ross²,

Zhou³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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There is ongoing debate about what characteristics of left ventral occipitotemporal cortex drive development of the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA). We offer a new hypothesis. A summary of occipitotemporal organization indicates that the VWFA falls in a cortical region supporting action analysis, rather than object recognition. We discuss evidence that letters are serially processed in a top-down manner during the initial years of reading acquisition, and propose that this sequential activation of letter representations causes the VWFA to develop in motion-sensitive cortex specialized for processing of non-biological shape sequences. Supporting this hypothesis, a new fMRI analysis identifies a left-lateralized region that responds more strongly to dynamic motion of objects than humans; this region's location (-48, -55, -8) falls almost exactly at the canonical VWFA coordinates (-45, -57, -12).

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“…This anatomical boundary stretched from the mid-fusiform sulcus (medial boundary) to the inferior temporal gyrus (lateral boundary) and from the anterior end of the occipito-temporal sulcus (OTS, anterior boundary) to the posterior transverse collateral sulcus (posterior boundary). This boundary was chosen to match previous work (Nordt et al, 2019) except for the anterior boundary, which we shifter more anteriorly to ensure that the entire OTS is included. This anatomical boundary, which is made available in GitHub (https://github.com/VPNL/predictFuncFromStruct), was transformed to each individual's native space (black outline in Fig.…”

Section: Functional Mri Data Acquisition and Preprocessingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, given that reading is a learned skill, it is particularly puzzling what drives the consistent spatial layout of reading-related responses across individuals. Indeed, recent evidence shows that learning to read changes functional response in the lateral portion of VTC (lateral VTC) Cantlon et al, 2011), leading not only to changes in distributed responses (Nordt et al, 2019), but also to the emergence of a region selective for words (Dehaene-Lambertz et al, 2018;Dehaene et al, 2010). This region, which is often referred to as the visual word form area (VWFA, Cohen et al, 2000;Dehaene and Cohen, 2011), is located in the occipito-temporal sulcus (OTS) and critically involved in reading (Gaillard et al, 2006;Hirshorn et al, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

White matter fascicles and cortical microstructure predict reading-related responses in human ventral temporal cortex

Grotheer¹,

Yeatman

Grill-Spector³

2020

Preprint

Self Cite

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HighlightsThe ILF, AF and VOF predict the spatial layout of reading-related responses in VTC Gray matter microstructure improves the prediction of reading-related responses Fascicles and gray matter structure together predict the location of the VWFA Abstract Reading-related responses in the lateral ventral temporal cortex (VTC) show a consistent spatial layout across individuals, which is puzzling, since reading skills are acquired during childhood. Here, we tested the hypothesis that white matter fascicles and gray matter microstructure predict the location of reading-related responses in lateral VTC. We obtained functional (fMRI), diffusion (dMRI), and quantitative (qMRI) magnetic resonance imaging data in 30 adults. fMRI was used to map reading-related responses by contrasting responses in a reading task with those in adding and color tasks; dMRI was used to identify the brain's fascicles and to map their endpoints density in lateral VTC; qMRI was used to measure proton relaxation time (T1), which depends on cortical tissue microstructure. We fit linear models that predict readingrelated responses in lateral VTC from endpoint density and T1 and used leave-one-subject-out cross-validation to assess prediction accuracy. First, by using a subset of our participants (N=10, feature selection set), we find that i) endpoint density of the arcuate fasciculus (AF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), and vertical occipital fasciculus (VOF) are significant predictors of reading-related responses, and ii) cortical T1 of lateral VTC further improves the predictions of the fascicle model. Next, in the remaining 20 participants (validation set), we showed that a linear model that includes T1, AF, ILF and VOF significantly predicts i) the map of reading-related responses across lateral VTC and ii) the location of the visual word form area, a region critical for reading. Overall, our data-driven approach reveals that the AF, ILF, VOF and cortical microstructure have a consistent spatial relationship with an individual's reading-related responses in lateral VTC.

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Learning to Read Increases the Informativeness of Distributed Ventral Temporal Responses

Cited by 22 publications

References 61 publications

Hemispheric Organization for Visual Object Recognition: A Theoretical Account and Empirical Evidence

Hemispheric Organization for Visual Object Recognition: A Theoretical Account and Empirical Evidence

A novel hypothesis for the original functionality of the Visual Word Form Area: Processing shape sequences

White matter fascicles and cortical microstructure predict reading-related responses in human ventral temporal cortex

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