Song Yiying, Bu Yong, Liu Jia
Department of Biology, Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences bState Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Neuroreport. 2010 Mar 31;21(5):333-7. doi: 10.1097/WNR.0b013e328336ee48.
Earlier studies identify a region in the left fusiform gyrus that responds selectively to visual words, termed the visual word form area (VWFA). Converging evidence suggests that the VWFA is wired up largely by language experience. Here we asked whether general associative experience without explicit language learning accounts for the selectivity of the VWFA. Specifically, we trained individuals to associate novel stimuli with objects. We found that the blood oxygen level-dependent response of the VWFA to the trained stimuli was significantly higher than that of visually similar but untrained stimuli. No learning effects were found in the face-selective and object-selective regions. Our study illuminates that the plasticity of the VWFA can be shaped by associative learning without language experience.
早期研究发现左侧梭状回中有一个区域对视觉单词有选择性反应，称为视觉词形区（VWFA）。越来越多的证据表明，VWFA主要是由语言经验构建起来的。在此，我们探讨了在没有明确语言学习的情况下，一般联想经验是否能解释VWFA的选择性。具体而言，我们训练个体将新刺激与物体联系起来。我们发现，VWFA对训练刺激的血氧水平依赖反应显著高于视觉上相似但未训练的刺激。在面部选择性区域和物体选择性区域未发现学习效应。我们的研究表明，VWFA的可塑性可以通过无语言经验的联想学习来塑造。
