Coglunch - February 23, 2006
"fMRI studies of word reading in children and adults"
Michal Ben-Shachar
Psychology, Stanford
Developmental studies of reading frequently focus on the phonological
aspects of reading. However, reading acquisition obviously involves
excessive exposure to print, which may cause changes in the way
children process visual stimuli. In this talk I will focus on the
cortical changes related to reading development, in regions that are
involved in high level visual processing. Recent functional imaging
studies in adults have suggested the existence of a specialized system
for representing visual word forms, located within the left
occipito-temporal cortex. I will present results from fMRI studies
with children and adults, focusing on the development of sensitivity
to written words in 7-12 year old children, and the extent of
specialization for word forms in the ventral occipito-temporal
cortex.
Last modified: Fri Feb 10 11:17:44 PST 2006 by emma@csli.stanford.edu