Encoding words and pictures: A positron emission tomography study

doi:10.1016/0028-3932(95)00099-2

Neuropsychologia

Volume 34, Issue 3, March 1996, Pages 185-194

https://doi.org/10.1016/0028-3932(95)00099-2 Get rights and content

Abstract

Subjects viewed words, pictures, crosshairs, or a large X flanked by two smaller xs on either side while their brain activity was monitored using positron emission tomography (PET). When activation from the pictures, crosshairs, or Xs condition was subtracted from activation in the words condition, the left angular gyrus and Broca's area were found to be activated. In the comparison of words and pictures, additional language areas were activated. These results provide support for the classical neurological model of reading. The results also suggest that a “word form area” is near the margin of the left angular gyrus.

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The first was the left posterior middle/superior temporal gyrus which was more activated for reading aloud than viewing ‘false fonts’ (non-existent letter-like forms that controlled for visual input) and saying a single word (e.g. “crime” or “range”) to control for speech production (Howard et al., 1992; Small et al., 1996). The second was the left angular gyrus that was more activated for viewing words than pictures (Menard et al., 1996), and also the site of the “visual word form area” in the classical neurological model of reading (Dejerine, 1891; Geschwind, 1965). The third was the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex that was more activated by reading the Japanese script Kanji than Kana (Kiyosawa et al., 1995); and more activated when younger relative to older adults read English words (Madden et al., 1996).
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Without special education, early deprivation of auditory speech input, hinders the development of phonological representations and may alter the neural mechanisms of reading. By using fMRI during lexical and rhyming decision tasks, we compared in hearing and pre-lingually deaf subjects the neural activity in functional regions of interest (ROIs) engaged in reading. The results show in deaf readers significantly higher activation in the ROIs relevant to the grapho-phonological route, but also in the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) and the right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). These adjustments may be interpreted within the dual route model of reading as an alternative strategy, which gives priority to rule-based letter-to-sound conversion. Activation in the right IFG would account for compensation mechanisms based on phonological recoding and inner speech while activation in the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) may relate to the cognitive effort called for by the alternative strategy. Our data suggest that the neural mechanisms of reading are shaped by the auditory experience of speech.

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View full text

Encoding words and pictures: A positron emission tomography study

Abstract

Semantic facilitation with pictures and words

J. Exp. Psychol.: Learn. Mem Cognit.

The alexias

Wernicke's region—where is it?

Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci.

Language: Structure, Processing, and Disorders

Recognizing printed words: A look at current models

Cognitive neuropsychology and the study of reading

MacLab: A Macintosh system for psychology labs

Behavior Research, Methods, Instruments and Computers

Aphasia with nonhemorrhagic lesions in the basal ganglia and internal capsule

Arch. Neurol.

Sur un cas de cécité verbale avec agraphie, suivi d'autopsie

Comp. Rend. Hebd. Séances Mémoires Soc. Biol.

The anatomy of phonological and semantic processing in normal subjects

Brain

Comparing functional (PET) images: The assessment of significant changes

J. Cereb. Blood Flow Metab.

Specialization of the human brain

Sci. Am.

Disconnexion syndromes in animals and man

Brain

Disconnexion syndromes in animals and man

Brain

Dissociation of object and spatial visual processing pathways in human extrastriate cortex

The cortical localization of the lexicons: Positron emission tomography evidence

Brain

Are there independent lexical and nonlexical routes in word processing? An evaluation of the dual route theory in reading

Behav. Brain Sci.

Image and Brain: The Resolution of the Imagery Debate

Identifying objects seen from different viewpoints: A PET investigation

Brain