Anatomical connections of the visual word form area
Journal of Neuroscience. 2014-11-12; 34(46): 15402-15414
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4918-13.2014
Lire sur PubMed
1. J Neurosci. 2014 Nov 12;34(46):15402-14. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4918-13.2014.
Anatomical connections of the visual word form area.
Bouhali F(1), Thiebaut de Schotten M(2), Pinel P(3), Poupon C(3), Mangin JF(3),
Dehaene S(4), Cohen L(5).
Author information:
(1)Inserm, U 1127, F-75013, Paris, France, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris
06, F-75013, Paris, France, CNRS, F-75013, Paris, France, Institut du Cerveau et
de la Moelle épinière, ICM, F-75013, Paris, France.
(2)Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris 06, F-75013, Paris, France, CNRS,
F-75013, Paris, France, Natbrainlab, Department of Forensic and
Neurodevelopmental Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London,
London, United Kingdom, Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM,
F-75013, Paris, France.
(3)INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Gif sur Yvette 91191, France,
Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Direction des Sciences du Vivant, IBM,
Neurospin center, Gif sur Yvette 91191, France, Université Paris-Sud 11, 91405
Orsay, France, and.
(4)Collège de France, 75005 Paris, France, INSERM, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit,
Gif sur Yvette 91191, France, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Direction des
Sciences du Vivant, IBM, Neurospin center, Gif sur Yvette 91191, France,
Université Paris-Sud 11, 91405 Orsay, France, and.
(5)Inserm, U 1127, F-75013, Paris, France, Sorbonne Universités, UPMC Univ Paris
06, F-75013, Paris, France, AP-HP, Hôpital de la Pitié Salpêtrière, Department of
Neurology, F-75013, Paris, France, CNRS, F-75013, Paris, France, Institut du
Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, ICM, F-75013, Paris, France
.
The visual word form area (VWFA), a region systematically involved in the
identification of written words, occupies a reproducible location in the left
occipitotemporal sulcus in expert readers of all cultures. Such a reproducible
localization is paradoxical, given that reading is a recent invention that could
not have influenced the genetic evolution of the cortex. Here, we test the
hypothesis that the VWFA recycles a region of the ventral visual cortex that
shows a high degree of anatomical connectivity to perisylvian language areas,
thus providing an efficient circuit for both grapheme-phoneme conversion and
lexical access. In two distinct experiments, using high-resolution
diffusion-weighted data from 75 human subjects, we show that (1) the VWFA,
compared with the fusiform face area, shows higher connectivity to
left-hemispheric perisylvian superior temporal, anterior temporal and inferior
frontal areas; (2) on a posterior-to-anterior axis, its localization within the
left occipitotemporal sulcus maps onto a peak of connectivity with language
areas, with slightly distinct subregions showing preferential projections to
areas respectively involved in grapheme-phoneme conversion and lexical access. In
agreement with functional data on the VWFA in blind subjects, the results suggest
that connectivity to language areas, over and above visual factors, may be the
primary determinant of VWFA localization.
Copyright © 2014 the authors 0270-6474/14/3415402-13$15.00/0.
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4918-13.2014
PMCID: PMC6608451
PMID: 25392507 [Indexed for MEDLINE]