McCandliss Bruce D., Cohen Laurent, Dehaene Stanislas
Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Box 140, 1300 York Avenue, 10021, New York, NY, USA
Trends Cogn Sci. 2003 Jul;7(7):293-299. doi: 10.1016/s1364-6613(03)00134-7.
Brain imaging studies reliably localize a region of visual cortex that is especially responsive to visual words. This brain specialization is essential to rapid reading ability because it enhances perception of words by becoming specifically tuned to recurring properties of a writing system. The origin of this specialization poses a challenge for evolutionary accounts involving innate mechanisms for functional brain organization. We propose an alternative account, based on studies of other forms of visual expertise (i.e. bird and car experts) that lead to functional reorganization. We argue that the interplay between the unique demands of word reading and the structural constraints of the visual system lead to the emergence of the Visual Word Form Area.
脑成像研究能够可靠地定位视觉皮层中对视觉单词特别敏感的区域。这种大脑特化对于快速阅读能力至关重要，因为它通过专门适应书写系统的重复特性来增强对单词的感知。这种特化的起源对涉及功能性大脑组织先天机制的进化解释提出了挑战。我们基于对其他形式视觉专长（即鸟类和汽车专家）导致功能重组的研究，提出了另一种解释。我们认为，单词阅读的独特需求与视觉系统的结构限制之间的相互作用导致了视觉词形区的出现。
