Emerging neural specialization of the ventral occipitotemporal cortex to characters through phonological association learning in preschool children

Publication date: Available online 22 January 2019Source: NeuroImageAuthor(s): Georgette Pleisch, Iliana I. Karipidis, Christian Brauchli, Martina Röthlisberger, Christoph Hofstetter, Philipp Stämpfli, Susanne Walitza, Silvia BremAbstractThe ventral occipitotemporal (vOT) cortex serves as a core region for visual processing, and specific areas of this region show preferential activation for various visual categories such as faces and print. The emergence of such functional specialization in the human cortex represents a pivotal developmental process, which provides a basis for targeted and efficient information processing. For example, functional specialization to print in the left vOT is an important prerequisite for fluent reading. However, it remains unclear, which processes initiate the preferential cortical activations to characters arising in the vOT during child development. Using a multimodal neuroimaging approach with preschool children at familial risk for developmental dyslexia, we demonstrate how varying levels of expertise modulate the neural response to single characters, which represent the building blocks of print units. The level of expertise to characters was manipulated firstly through brief training of false-font speech–sound associations and secondly by comparing characters for which children differed in their level of familiarity and expertise accumulated through abundant exposure in their everyday environment. Neural correlates of character processi...

Source: NeuroImage - January 22, 2019 Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research