Fiez J A, Petersen S E
Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh/Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. fiez+@pitt.edu
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Feb 3;95(3):914-21. doi: 10.1073/pnas.95.3.914.
This review discusses how neuroimaging can contribute to our understanding of a fundamental aspect of skilled reading: the ability to pronounce a visually presented word. One contribution of neuroimaging is that it provides a tool for localizing brain regions that are active during word reading. To assess the extent to which similar results are obtained across studies, a quantitative review of nine neuroimaging investigations of word reading was conducted. Across these studies, the results converge to reveal a set of areas active during word reading, including left-lateralized regions in occipital and occipitotemporal cortex, the left frontal operculum, bilateral regions within the cerebellum, primary motor cortex, and the superior and middle temporal cortex, and medial regions in the supplementary motor area and anterior cingulate. Beyond localization, the challenge is to use neuroimaging as a tool for understanding how reading is accomplished. Central to this challenge will be the integration of neuroimaging results with information from other methodologies. To illustrate this point, this review will highlight the importance of spelling-to-sound consistency in the transformation from orthographic (word form) to phonological (word sound) representations, and then explore results from three neuroimaging studies in which the spelling-to-sound consistency of the stimuli was deliberately varied. Emphasis is placed on the pattern of activation observed within the left frontal cortex, because the results provide an example of the issues and benefits involved in relating neuroimaging results to behavioral results in normal and brain damaged subjects, and to theoretical models of reading.
读出视觉呈现单词的能力。神经影像学的一个贡献在于，它提供了一种工具，用于定位单词阅读过程中活跃的脑区。为了评估不同研究之间获得相似结果的程度，我们对九项关于单词阅读的神经影像学研究进行了定量综述。在这些研究中，结果趋于一致，揭示了一组在单词阅读过程中活跃的区域，包括枕叶和枕颞叶皮质的左侧化区域、左侧额盖、小脑内的双侧区域、初级运动皮质、颞上回和颞中回，以及辅助运动区和前扣带回的内侧区域。除了定位之外，挑战在于将神经影像学用作理解阅读是如何完成的工具。应对这一挑战的核心将是把神经影像学结果与来自其他方法的信息相结合。为了说明这一点，本综述将强调拼写与发音一致性在从正字法（单词形式）到语音（单词发音）表征转换中的重要性，然后探讨三项神经影像学研究的结果，在这些研究中，刺激的拼写与发音一致性被有意改变。重点放在左侧额叶皮质内观察到的激活模式上，因为这些结果提供了一个例子，说明了将神经影像学结果与正常和脑损伤受试者的行为结果以及阅读理论模型相关联时所涉及的问题和益处。
