The visual word form area and the frequency with which words are encountered: evidence from a parametric fMRI study

Kronbichler, Martin; Hutzler, Florian; Wimmer, Heinz; Mair, Alois; Staffen, Wolfgang; Ladurner, G.

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2003.10.021

Cited by 301 publications

(332 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…The [deoxy-Hb] finding confirms the most established BOLD effect in fMRI research on word recognition (Carreiras et al, 2006;Fiebach et al, 2002Fiebach et al, , 2003Ischebeck et al, 2004;Kronbichler et al, 2004;Nakic et al, 2006;Prabhakaran et al, 2006). The established interpretation is that grapheme-phoneme correspondences are being computed in the IFG.…”

Section: The Word Frequency Effectsupporting

confidence: 67%

“…Consecutive fMRI research rendered the word frequency effect the probably best-replicated finding of fMRI studies on word recognition. Larger BOLD contrasts in the IFG for low freqency words were reported in a silent articulation (Ischebeck et al, 2004;Kronbichler et al, 2004), a visual (Fiebach et al, 2002(Fiebach et al, , 2003Carreiras et al, 2006), an auditory (Prabhakaran et al, 2006) and a phonological lexical decision task (Carreiras et al, 2006;Ischebeck et al, 2004;Nakic et al, 2006;Prabhakaran et al, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…In order to quantify familiarity with the letter strings in terms of an aggregation of more or less familiar features, Kronbichler et al (2004) controlled for bigram frequency. The present study used type and token bigram frequencies.…”

Section: The Word Frequency Effectmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Differential activation of frontal and parietal regions during visual word recognition: An optical topography study

et al. 2008

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The present study examined cortical oxygenation changes during lexical decision on words and pseudowords using functional NearInfrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS). Focal hyperoxygenation as an indicator of functional activation was compared over three target areas over the left hemisphere. A 52-channel Hitachi ETG-4000 was used covering the superior frontal gyrus (SFG), the left inferior parietal gyrus (IPG) and the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). To allow for anatomical inference a recently developed probabilistic mapping method was used to determine the most likely anatomic locations of the changes in cortical activation [Tsuzuki, D., Jurcak, V., Singh, A.K., Okamoto, M., Watanabe, E., Dan, I., 2007. Virtual spatial registration of stand-alone fNIRS data to MNI space. NeuroImage 43 (4), 1506-1518.Subjects made lexical decisions on 50 low and 50 high frequency words and 100 pseudowords. With respect to the lexicality effect, words elicited a larger focal hyperoxygenation in comparison to pseudowords in two regions identified as the SFG and left IPG. The SFG activation difference was interpreted to reflect decision-related mechanisms according to the Multiple Read-Out Model [Grainger, J., Jacobs, A.M., 1996. Orthographic processing in visual word recognition: A multiple read-out model. Psychological Review 103, 518-565]. The greater oxygenation response to words in the left IPG suggests that this region connects orthographic, phonological and semantic representations. A decrease of deoxygenated hemoglobin was observed to low frequency in comparison to high frequency words in a region identified as IFG. This region's sensitivity to word frequency suggests its involvement in grapheme-phoneme conversion, or its role during the selection of preactivated semantic candidates.

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Section: The Word Frequency Effectsupporting

confidence: 67%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Differential activation of frontal and parietal regions during visual word recognition: An optical topography study

et al. 2008

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“…Thus, this region may participate in the recognition of many or even most visual inputs and yet also display perceptual expertise for letter strings. Several authors have reported stronger activation in this general region (and surrounding extrastriate cortex) for reading word-like pseudowords compared to words (Binder et al, 2005a;Kronbichler et al, 2004;Mechelli et al, 2003;Price et al, 1996;Xu et al, 2001). It seems very likely that this difference is related to the longer processing time and visual attention required for reading pseudowords, as the same region showed activation correlated with RT during overt word and pseudoword naming (peak at −42, −55, −10) (Binder et al, 2005a) and during a visual lexical decision task (peak at −42, −52, −17) (Binder et al, 2005b) and was activated by covert shifts of visual attention in an experiment using meaningless geometric shapes to cue the spatial location of targets (peak at −45, −69, −6) (Gitelman et al, 1999).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Tuning of the human left fusiform gyrus to sublexical orthographic structure

et al. 2006

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Neuropsychological and neurophysiological evidence point to a role for the left fusiform gyrus in visual word recognition, but the specific nature of this role remains a topic of debate. The aim of this study was to measure the sensitivity of this region to sublexical orthographic structure. We measured blood oxygenation (BOLD) changes in the brain with functional magnetic resonance imaging while fluent readers of English viewed meaningless letter strings. The stimuli varied systematically in their approximation to English orthography, as measured by the probability of occurrence of letters and sequential letter pairs (bigrams) comprising the string. A whole-brain analysis showed a single region in the lateral left fusiform gyrus where BOLD signal increased with letter sequence probability; no other brain region showed this response pattern. The results suggest tuning of this cortical area to letter probabilities as a result of perceptual experience and provide a possible neural correlate for the 'word superiority effect' observed in letter perception research.Much evidence supports the idea that perceptual systems become selectively efficient at processing inputs that are encountered frequently. In learning a written language, for example, human brains appear to become tuned to the recurring visual patterns of the language represented in its orthographic structure. This is illustrated by the fact that letters embedded in words (such as S in the English word FLASH) or in word-like letter strings (S in FRISH) are more efficiently recognized than letters embedded in unusual letter strings (S in RFHSL) (McClelland and Rumelhart, 1981;Reicher, 1969). Such evidence suggests that normal readers use information about frequently recurring letter combinations, encoded as a result of experience with a specific written language, to more efficiently perceive and identify letters and letter strings.Neuropsychological evidence for an orthographic processor in the brain comes from patients who exhibit 'letter-by-letter reading' after left occipitotemporal brain injury (Binder and Mohr, 1992;Cohen et al., 2003;Leff et al., 2001;Sakurai et al., 2000). Such patients have normal language functions, including good recognition of single letters, but show profoundly impaired processing of letter strings, suggesting focal damage to systems responsible for storing or using orthographic information (Behrmann et al., 1998;Patterson and Kay, 1982;Warrington and Shallice, 1980). This localization is supported by neuroimaging experiments in normal readers, which have identified a region in the lateral left fusiform (occipitotemporal) gyrus that responds more strongly to words and word-like nonwords than to consonant letter strings or nonsense characters Dehaene et al., 2001;Polk and Farah, 2002 1999). Several elegant studies showed that this orthographic system employs an abstract code that is unaffected by changes in letter case (Dehaene et al., 2001Polk and Farah, 2002).Although activation in this brain region appears to be relat...

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“…Although lexical frequency has been manipulated in previous neuroimaging studies using picture naming paradigms (fMRI studies by Graves, Grabowski, Mehta, & Gordon, 2007;Joubert et al, 2004;Kronbichler et al, 2004; ERP studies by Cuetos, Barbón, Urrutia, & Domminguez, 2009;Dambacher, Kliegl, Hofmann, & Jacobs, 2006;Hauk & Pulvermüller, 2004;Strijkers, Costa, & Thierry, 2009), we decided to manipulate word AoA for the following reasons.…”

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confidence: 99%

Comparing Electrophysiological Correlates of Word Production in Immediate and Delayed Naming Through the Analysis of Word Age of Acquisition Effects

Laganaro

Perret

2010

Brain Topogr

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Most EEG studies analysing speech production with event related brain potential (ERP) have adopted silent metalinguistic tasks or delayed or tacit picture naming in order to avoid possible artefacts during motor preparation. A central issue in the interpretation of these results is whether the processes involved in those tasks are comparable to those involved in overt speech production. In the present study we addressed a methodological issue about the integration of stimulus-aligned and response-aligned ERPs in immediate overt picture naming in comparison to delayed production, coupled with a theoretical point on the effect of word Age of Acquisition (AoA). High density EEG recordings were used and waveform analyses and spatio-temporal segmentation were combined on stimulus-aligned and response-aligned ERPs. The same sequence and duration of topographic maps appeared in the immediate and delayed production until around 350 ms after picture onset, revealing similar encoding processes until the beginning of phonological encoding, but modulations linked to word AoA were only observed in the immediate production. Considering stimulus-aligned and responsealigned ERPs together allowed to identify that a stable topography starting around 350 ms lasts 30 ms longer for late-acquired than for early-acquired words. This difference falls within the time-window of phonological encoding and its modulation can be linked to the longer production latencies for late-acquired words.3

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The visual word form area and the frequency with which words are encountered: evidence from a parametric fMRI study

Cited by 301 publications

References 28 publications

Differential activation of frontal and parietal regions during visual word recognition: An optical topography study

Differential activation of frontal and parietal regions during visual word recognition: An optical topography study

Tuning of the human left fusiform gyrus to sublexical orthographic structure

Comparing Electrophysiological Correlates of Word Production in Immediate and Delayed Naming Through the Analysis of Word Age of Acquisition Effects

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