Philosophy and Social Science Laboratory of Reading and Development in Children and Adolescents (South China Normal University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.
School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510631, China.
Brain Imaging Behav. 2022 Aug;16(4):1695-1707. doi: 10.1007/s11682-022-00641-w. Epub 2022 Mar 5.
As a key area in word reading, the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex is proposed for abstract orthographic processing, and its middle part has even been labeled as the visual word form area. Because the definition of the VWFA largely varies and the reading task differs across studies, the function of the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex in word reading is continuingly debated on whether this region is specific for orthographic processing or be involved in an interactive framework. By using representational similarity analysis (RSA), this study examined information representation in the VWFA at the individual level and the modulatory effect of reading task. Twenty-four subjects were scanned while performing the explicit (i.e., the naming task) and implicit (i.e., the perceptual task) reading tasks. Activation analysis showed that the naming task elicited greater activation in regions related to phonological processing (e.g., the bilateral prefrontal cortex and temporoparietal cortex), while the perceptual task recruited greater activation in visual cortex and default mode network (e.g., the bilateral middle frontal gyrus, angular gyrus, and the right middle temporal gyrus). More importantly, RSA also showed that task modulated information representation in the bilateral anterior occipitotemporal cortex and VWFA. Specifically, ROI-based RSA revealed enhanced orthographic and phonological representations in the bilateral anterior fusiform cortex and VWFA in the naming task relative to the perceptual task. These results suggest that lexical representation in the VWFA is influenced by the demand of phonological processing, which supports the interactive account of the VWFA.
作为阅读文字的一个关键区域，左腹侧枕颞区被提出用于抽象的正字法加工，其中部甚至被标记为视觉词形区。由于 VWFA 的定义在很大程度上各不相同，并且阅读任务在不同的研究中也有所不同，因此关于左腹侧枕颞区在文字阅读中的功能，即该区域是否专门用于正字法处理，或者是否参与了一个交互框架，仍在持续争论中。本研究通过使用代表性相似性分析（RSA），在个体水平上检查了 VWFA 中的信息表示，以及阅读任务的调节作用。24 名被试在执行显性（即命名任务）和隐性（即知觉任务）阅读任务时进行了扫描。激活分析表明，命名任务在与语音处理相关的区域（如双侧前额叶皮层和颞顶叶皮层）引起了更大的激活，而知觉任务在视觉皮层和默认模式网络（如双侧额中回、角回和右颞中回）引起了更大的激活。更重要的是，RSA 还表明任务调节了双侧前枕颞区和 VWFA 中的信息表示。具体来说，基于 ROI 的 RSA 显示，在命名任务中，双侧前梭状回和 VWFA 中的正字法和语音表示增强，而在知觉任务中则减弱。这些结果表明，VWFA 中的词汇表示受到语音处理需求的影响，这支持了 VWFA 的交互理论。
