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Articles, Behavioral/Cognitive

Adding Words to the Brain's Visual Dictionary: Novel Word Learning Selectively Sharpens Orthographic Representations in the VWFA

Laurie S. Glezer, Judy Kim, Josh Rule, Xiong Jiang and Maximilian Riesenhuber
Journal of Neuroscience 25 March 2015, 35 (12) 4965-4972; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4031-14.2015
Laurie S. Glezer
Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia 20007
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Judy Kim
Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia 20007
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Josh Rule
Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia 20007
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Xiong Jiang
Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia 20007
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Maximilian Riesenhuber
Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, District of Columbia 20007
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Abstract

The nature of orthographic representations in the human brain is still subject of much debate. Recent reports have claimed that the visual word form area (VWFA) in left occipitotemporal cortex contains an orthographic lexicon based on neuronal representations highly selective for individual written real words (RWs). This theory predicts that learning novel words should selectively increase neural specificity for these words in the VWFA. We trained subjects to recognize novel pseudowords (PWs) and used fMRI rapid adaptation to compare neural selectivity with RWs, untrained PWs (UTPWs), and trained PWs (TPWs). Before training, PWs elicited broadly tuned responses, whereas responses to RWs indicated tight tuning. After training, TPW responses resembled those of RWs, whereas UTPWs continued to show broad tuning. This change in selectivity was specific to the VWFA. Therefore, word learning appears to selectively increase neuronal specificity for the new words in the VWFA, thereby adding these words to the brain's visual dictionary.

  • language
  • learning
  • object recognition
  • plasticity
  • reading
  • VWFA
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The Journal of Neuroscience: 35 (12)
Journal of Neuroscience
Vol. 35, Issue 12
25 Mar 2015
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Adding Words to the Brain's Visual Dictionary: Novel Word Learning Selectively Sharpens Orthographic Representations in the VWFA
Laurie S. Glezer, Judy Kim, Josh Rule, Xiong Jiang, Maximilian Riesenhuber
Journal of Neuroscience 25 March 2015, 35 (12) 4965-4972; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4031-14.2015

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Adding Words to the Brain's Visual Dictionary: Novel Word Learning Selectively Sharpens Orthographic Representations in the VWFA
Laurie S. Glezer, Judy Kim, Josh Rule, Xiong Jiang, Maximilian Riesenhuber
Journal of Neuroscience 25 March 2015, 35 (12) 4965-4972; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4031-14.2015
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Keywords

  • language
  • learning
  • object recognition
  • plasticity
  • reading
  • VWFA

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