Department of Developmental Neuropsychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Bochum, Germany.
Neurosciences Program, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA.
Cereb Cortex. 2019 Jul 5;29(7):3124-3139. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhy178.
Becoming a proficient reader requires substantial learning over many years. However, it is unknown how learning to read affects development of distributed visual representations across human ventral temporal cortex (VTC). Using fMRI and a data-driven, computational approach, we quantified the development of distributed VTC responses to characters (pseudowords and numbers) versus other domains in children, preteens, and adults. Results reveal anatomical- and hemisphere-specific development. With development, distributed responses to words and characters became more distinctive and informative in lateral but not medial VTC, and in the left but not right hemisphere. While the development of voxels with both positive and negative preference to words affected distributed information, only development of voxels with positive preference to words (i.e., word-selective) was correlated with reading ability. These data show that developmental increases in informativeness of distributed left lateral VTC responses are related to proficient reading and have important implications for both developmental theories and for elucidating neural mechanisms of reading disabilities.
成为一名熟练的读者需要多年的大量学习。然而，目前尚不清楚学习阅读如何影响人类腹侧颞叶皮层（VTC）中分布式视觉表示的发展。我们使用 fMRI 和数据驱动的计算方法，定量分析了儿童、青少年和成年人对字符（伪词和数字）与其他领域的 VTC 分布反应的发展。结果揭示了解剖和半球特异性的发展。随着发展，对单词和字符的分布式反应在外侧 VTC 而不是内侧 VTC 以及左侧半球而不是右侧半球变得更加独特和有信息。虽然对单词有积极和消极偏好的体素的发展影响了分布式信息，但只有对单词有积极偏好（即单词选择性）的体素的发展与阅读能力相关。这些数据表明，分布在左侧外侧 VTC 反应的信息量随着发育而增加与熟练阅读有关，对发展理论和阐明阅读障碍的神经机制都有重要意义。
