LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

An fMRI study of visual hemifield integration and cerebral lateralization

&NA; The human brain integrates hemifield‐split visual information via interhemispheric transfer. The degree to which neural circuits involved in this process behave differently during word recognition as compared to object… Click to show full abstract

&NA; The human brain integrates hemifield‐split visual information via interhemispheric transfer. The degree to which neural circuits involved in this process behave differently during word recognition as compared to object recognition is not known. Evidence from neuroimaging (fMRI) suggests that interhemispheric transfer during word viewing converges in the left hemisphere, in two distinct brain areas, an “occipital word form area” (OWFA) and a more anterior occipitotemporal “visual word form area” (VWFA). We used a novel fMRI half‐field repetition technique to test whether or not these areas also integrate nonverbal hemifield‐split string stimuli of similar visual complexity. We found that the fMRI responses of both the OWFA and VWFA while viewing nonverbal stimuli were strikingly different than those measured during word viewing, especially with respect to half‐stimulus changes restricted to a single hemifield. We conclude that normal reading relies on left‐lateralized neural mechanisms, which integrate hemifield‐split visual information for words but not for nonverbal stimuli. HighlightsResults are reported from an fMRI half‐field repetition paradigm.Left and right hemispheres show distinct patterns of repetition suppression.Half‐field suppression is different for words and non‐verbal stimuli.An occipital word form area (OWFA) underlies split‐word binding.

Keywords: form area; word; word form; hemifield split; half; hemifield

Journal Title: Neuropsychologia
Year Published: 2017

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.