Dataset Information

Universal brain systems for recognizing word shapes and handwriting gestures during reading.

ABSTRACT: Do the neural circuits for reading vary across culture? Reading of visually complex writing systems such as Chinese has been proposed to rely on areas outside the classical left-hemisphere network for alphabetic reading. Here, however, we show that, once potential confounds in cross-cultural comparisons are controlled for by presenting handwritten stimuli to both Chinese and French readers, the underlying network for visual word recognition may be more universal than previously suspected. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging in a semantic task with words written in cursive font, we demonstrate that two universal circuits, a shape recognition system (reading by eye) and a gesture recognition system (reading by hand), are similarly activated and show identical patterns of activation and repetition priming in the two language groups. These activations cover most of the brain regions previously associated with culture-specific tuning. Our results point to an extended reading network that invariably comprises the occipitotemporal visual word-form system, which is sensitive to well-formed static letter strings, and a distinct left premotor region, Exner's area, which is sensitive to the forward or backward direction with which cursive letters are dynamically presented. These findings suggest that cultural effects in reading merely modulate a fixed set of invariant macroscopic brain circuits, depending on surface features of orthographies.

SUBMITTER: Nakamura K

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3528608 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Universal brain systems for recognizing word shapes and handwriting gestures during reading.

Nakamura Kimihiro K Kuo Wen-Jui WJ Pegado Felipe F Cohen Laurent L Tzeng Ovid J L OJ Dehaene Stanislas S

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20121126 50

Do the neural circuits for reading vary across culture? Reading of visually complex writing systems such as Chinese has been proposed to rely on areas outside the classical left-hemisphere network for alphabetic reading. Here, however, we show that, once potential confounds in cross-cultural comparisons are controlled for by presenting handwritten stimuli to both Chinese and French readers, the underlying network for visual word recognition may be more universal than previously suspected. Using ...[more]

PMID: 23184998

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Dataset Information

Universal brain systems for recognizing word shapes and handwriting gestures during reading.

Publications

Universal brain systems for recognizing word shapes and handwriting gestures during reading.

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