scholarly journals Cortical selectivity driven by connectivity: Innate connectivity patterns of the visual word form area

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Li ◽  
David E. Osher ◽  
Heather A. Hansen ◽  
Zeynep M. Saygin
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Functional Specialization ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Language Network

AbstractWhat determines the functional organization of cortex? One hypothesis is that innate connectivity patterns set up a scaffold upon which functional specialization can later take place. We tested this hypothesis by asking whether the visual word form area (VWFA), an experience-driven region, was already connected to proto language networks in neonates scanned within one week of birth. With resting-state fMRI, we found that neonates showed adult-like functional connectivity, and observed that i) language regions connected more strongly with the putative VWFA than other adjacent ventral visual regions that also show foveal bias, and ii) the VWFA connected more strongly with frontotemporal language regions than with regions adjacent to these language regions. These data suggest that the location of the VWFA is earmarked at birth due to its connectivity with the language network, providing evidence that innate connectivity instructs the later refinement of cortex.

scholarly journals Innate connectivity patterns drive the development of the visual word form area

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Li ◽  
David E. Osher ◽  
Heather A. Hansen ◽  
Zeynep M. Saygin
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Human Connectome Project ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Language Network

Abstract What determines the functional organization of cortex? One hypothesis is that innate connectivity patterns, either structural or functional connectivity, set up a scaffold upon which functional specialization can later take place. We tested this hypothesis by asking whether the visual word form area (VWFA), an experience-driven region, was already functionally connected to proto language networks in neonates scanned within one week of birth. Using the data from the Human Connectone Project (HCP) and the Developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP), we calculated intrinsic functional connectivity during resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and found that neonates showed similar functional connectivity patterns to adults. We observed that (1) language regions connected more strongly with the putative VWFA than other adjacent ventral visual regions that also show foveal bias, and (2) the VWFA connected more strongly with frontotemporal language regions than with regions adjacent to these language regions. These data suggest that the location of the VWFA is earmarked at birth due to its connectivity with the language network, providing evidence that innate connectivity instructs the later refinement of cortex.

Altered connectivity of the visual word form area in the low-vision population: A resting-state fMRI study

2020 ◽  
Vol 137 ◽  
pp. 107302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Zhou ◽  
Wenbin Pang ◽  
Linjun Zhang ◽  
Hongkai Xu ◽  
Ping Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Low Vision ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Fmri Study

High-level Integrative Networks: A Resting-state fMRI Investigation of Reading and Spelling

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 961-977 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gali Ellenblum ◽  
Jeremy J. Purcell ◽  
Xiaowei Song ◽  
Brenda Rapp
Keyword(s):  
Resting State ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Orthographic Processing ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Reference Networks ◽  
High Level ◽  
Reading And Spelling ◽  
Processing Networks

Orthographic processing skills (reading and spelling) are evolutionarily recent and mastered late in development, providing an opportunity to investigate how the properties of the neural networks supporting skills of this type compare to those supporting evolutionarily older, well-established “reference” networks. Although there has been extensive research using task-based fMRI to study the neural substrates of reading, there has been very little using resting-state fMRI to examine the properties of orthographic networks. In this investigation using resting-state fMRI, we compare the within-network and across-network coherence properties of reading and spelling networks directly to these properties of reference networks, and we also compare the network properties of the key node of the orthographic networks—the visual word form area—to those of the other nodes of the orthographic and reference networks. Consistent with previous results, we find that orthographic processing networks do not exhibit certain basic network coherence properties displayed by other networks. However, we identify novel distinctive properties of the orthographic processing networks and establish that the visual word form area has unusually high levels of connectivity with a broad range of brain areas. These characteristics form the basis of our proposal that orthographic networks represent a class of “high-level integrative networks” with distinctive properties that allow them to recruit and integrate multiple, lower level processes.

scholarly journals Predicting Individual Traits from Unperformed Tasks

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shachar Gal ◽  
Niv Tik ◽  
Michal Bernstein-Eliav ◽  
Ido Tavor
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Resting State ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Functional Organization ◽  
Brain Connectivity ◽  
Brain Activation ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Human Connectome Project ◽  
Connectivity Patterns ◽  
Intelligence Scores

Relating individual differences in cognitive traits to brain functional organization is a long-lasting challenge for the neuroscience community. Individual intelligence scores were previously predicted from whole-brain connectivity patterns, extracted from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data acquired at rest. Recently, it was shown that task-induced brain activation maps outperform these resting-state connectivity patterns in predicting individual intelligence, suggesting that a cognitively demanding environment improves prediction of cognitive abilities. Here, we use data from the Human Connectome Project to predict task-induced brain activation maps from resting-state fMRI, and proceed to use these predicted activity maps to further predict individual differences in a variety of traits. While models based on original task activation maps remain the most accurate, models based on predicted maps significantly outperformed those based on the resting-state connectome. Thus, we provide a promising approach for the evaluation of measures of human behavior from brain activation maps, that could be used without having participants actually perform the tasks.

scholarly journals Intact reading ability in spite of a spatially distributed visual word form 'area' in an individual born without the left superior temporal lobe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Li ◽  
Evelina Fedorenko ◽  
Zeynep M. Saygin
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Lobe ◽  
Reading Ability ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Visual Words ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Ventral Temporal Cortex ◽  
Language Network

The visual word form area (VWFA) is an experience-dependent brain region in the left ventral temporal cortex of literate adults that responds selectively to visual words. Why does it emerge in this stereotyped location? Past research has shown that the VWFA is preferentially connected to the left-lateralized frontotemporal language network. However, it remains unclear whether the presence of a typical language network and its connections with ventral temporal cortex (VTC) are critical for the VWFA's emergence, and whether alternative functional architectures may support reading ability. We explored these questions in an individual (EG) born without the left superior temporal lobe but exhibiting normal reading ability. Using fMRI, we recorded brain activation to visual words, objects, faces, and scrambled words in EG and neurotypical controls. We did not observe word selectivity either in EG's right homotope of the VWFA (rVWFA)—the most expected location given that EG's language network is right-lateralized—or in her spared left VWFA (lVWFA), in the presence of typical face selectivity in both the right and left fusiform face area (rFFA, lFFA). Interestingly, multivariate pattern analyses revealed voxels in EG's rVWFA and lVWFA that showed 1) higher within- than between- category correlations for words (e.g., Words-Words>Words-Faces), and 2) higher within-category correlations for words than other categories (e.g., Words-Words>Faces-Faces). These results suggest that a typical left-hemisphere language network may be necessary for the emergence of focal word selectivity within ventral temporal cortex, and that orthographic processing may depend on a distributed neural code, which appears capable of supporting reading ability.

scholarly journals Language Prediction Is Reflected by Coupling between Frontal Gamma and Posterior Alpha Oscillations

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 432-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lin Wang ◽  
Peter Hagoort ◽  
Ole Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Language Processing ◽  
Visual Word ◽  
Temporal Region ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Visual Word Form Area ◽  
Gamma Power ◽  
Temporal Language ◽  
Study Participants ◽  
Language Network

Readers and listeners actively predict upcoming words during language processing. These predictions might serve to support the unification of incoming words into sentence context and thus rely on interactions between areas in the language network. In the current magnetoencephalography study, participants read sentences that varied in contextual constraints so that the predictability of the sentence-final words was either high or low. Before the sentence-final words, we observed stronger alpha power suppression for the highly compared with low constraining sentences in the left inferior frontal cortex, left posterior temporal region, and visual word form area. Importantly, the temporal and visual word form area alpha power correlated negatively with left frontal gamma power for the highly constraining sentences. We suggest that the correlation between alpha power decrease in temporal language areas and left prefrontal gamma power reflects the initiation of an anticipatory unification process in the language network.

scholarly journals Neurodegeneration of the visual word form area in a patient with word form alexia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adithya Chandregowda ◽  
Joseph R. Duffy ◽  
Mary M. Machulda ◽  
Val J. Lowe ◽  
Jennifer L. Whitwell ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Word ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Visual Word Form Area
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