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The neural development and organization of letter recognition

Discussion. The neuroimaging, computational, and behavioral studies described above lead naturally to experiments that investigate, in a way that is much more direct than has been possible previously, how reading-specific areas emerge. Having succeeded in directly observing reading-specific brain activations and in identifying environmental factors that, according to computational and behavioral evidence, could lead to localization, we are in a position to observe the effect of environmental manipulations on reading-specific brain activations directly (e.g., using fMRI to compare brain activations in Canadian-mail sorters vs. controls, or in subjects whose visual environment is experimentally manipulated for extensive periods of time). Furthermore, having discovered a neuroimaging methodology that reliably detects letter-specific activations in extrastriate cortex, we are well-positioned to apply it to investigate questions about the localization of non-linguistic functions as well as to study the neural basis of developmental dyslexia.

Neuroimaging | Theory | Cognitive Modeling | Behavioral Studies | Discussion | Papers