Language - Reading and the brain Flashcards
Is reading designated to one brain area?
Reading involves lots of different parts of the brain - not designated to one area in the brain - its highly connected part of the brain
What is local reading?
Letter by letter
often done by children
what is global reading ?
reading the word as a whole
where is global reading fastest?
in the left hemisphere - with words presented to the right visual field.
LVF (Left Visual Field) → RH (Right Hemisphere), engages in what processing of language?
Slower, Serial or local Processing
- Words in LVF go to the RH, which lacks strong word recognition abilities.
- The RH processes letter by letter and sends the info to the LH via the corpus callosum.
- Longer words take more time to process in the LVF because of this serial processing.
What has eye tracking studies found about how people read?
When you track peoples eyes when they are reading they skip lots of words - what they dont think theyll need.
Orthography meaning
the written form or spelling e.g., cat
Phonology meaning
the sounds of the word - not necessarily matching how its written - e.g., kat
What are the three parts of the triangle model?
Semantics —> Meaning
Orthography —>the written form (cat)
Phonology —> the sounds (Kat)
How does the triangle model attempt to explain how we read?
- When reading, visual input activates orthography, which then connects to phonology (sound representation) and semantics (meaning).
- Irregular words (e.g., HAVE doesn’t sound like GAVE) rely more on semantics to be pronounced correctly.
- Regular words (e.g., GAVE) can be pronounced using phonological rules.
- The model explains how both regular and irregular words can be learned through exposure and experience.
Broca’s Area (yellow, left frontal lobe)
Associated with speech production and planning.
Plays a crucial role in formulating grammatically correct sentences and articulating speech.
Connected to semantic knowledge.
Wernicke’s Area (green, left temporal lobe)
Responsible for speech comprehension.
Links auditory, motor, and visual aspects of speech.
Heschl’s Gyrus (primary auditory cortex, green area in temporal lobe)
Processes auditory information, including speech sounds.
Plays a role in early stages of speech recognition.
Angular Gyrus (pink, near parietal lobe)
Acts as a phonological buffer, which helps in reading and writing.
Important for processing written language and associating words with meanings.
Damage here can lead to dyslexia or reading difficulties.
Sensorimotor Speech Loop (blue pathway)
Involves non-semantic repetition and motor-based speech perception.
Important for echoing or repeating words without necessarily understanding them.
Possibly linked to mirror neurons in speech learning.
phonological buffer
helps in reading and writing
Damage here can lead to dyslexia or reading difficulties.
Silent Reading
Reading to yourself not out loud
The visual system sends input to the Angular Gyrus, which converts letters to sounds and meaning (via Wernicke’s Area).
Reading Aloud
Broca’s Area engages in speech planning and articulation. - the whole system is then activated
Phonological Awareness
The Angular Gyrus links writing, sound, and meaning, essential for literacy.
What is the first step in reading?
The visual system processes written text and sends it to the Angular Gyrus for phonological conversion.
What is the role of the Angular Gyrus in reading?
It converts written words into sounds (phonology), helping to map letters to speech sounds.
What happens after the Angular Gyrus processes written words?
The information is sent to Wernicke’s Area, which helps in word recognition and understanding meaning.
How does the brain process meaning when reading?
Wernicke’s Area links written and spoken words to semantic knowledge, helping us understand their meaning.
Why do we “hear” words in our head when we read?
Heschl’s Gyrus (Primary Auditory Cortex) is activated, processing speech sounds even during silent reading.
What part of the brain is responsible for reading aloud?
Broca’s Area, which plans and coordinates speech production.
How does the sensorimotor speech loop contribute to reading?
It helps with self-monitoring pronunciation when reading aloud and reinforces phonological learning.
What happens if the Angular Gyrus is damaged?
It can cause reading difficulties (dyslexia) or impair the ability to match letters to sounds.
What brain areas work together to process written language?
Angular Gyrus (phonological buffer), Wernicke’s Area (meaning), Broca’s Area (speech production), and Heschl’s Gyrus (auditory processing).
Visual word form area
Brain area found to be linked to word recognition
How does VWFA process words?
- This is an area in the fusiform (occipitotemporal) (this area also recognises faces, in the right hemisphere) gyrus responds to words (chair) more than false words (ckmn). IN THE LEFT HEMISPHERE.
- Upper and lower case equally.
- Real words more than non-words sounding the same. Taxi - taksi.
- Orthographic identity of the word
What area was damaged in Terry?
VWFA- he couldnt recognise words even though he can see the letters - cant recognise what they mean and are together.
what does the VWFA do in the right hemisphere?
recognises faces
In the main study what Ps were compared?
Comparing Ps who are literate (read through childhood and adulthood) X-literates (learned how to read in adulthood) Illiterates (do not know how to read)
What did they do in that main study lol?
- Measure how many words they can read per minute
- Better = more words per minute
- Put people in the scanner and present different stimuli
what people read more words in a minute?
The readers
VWFA = responds more if you read more
How do people who have not learned to read respond to faces in the VWFA in the brain scan?
Opposite pattern —> more activity if you read less to objects and stuff. the responded more to faces suggesting their VWFA in the LH hadnt adapted to reading lol
what is the main claim of the VWFA?
Claim: VWFA become specialized for visual word recognition
Example of experience affecting brain development
why is the VWFA controversial ?
- Skilled readers also activate the VWFA to letter strings & auditory words
- Skilled readers also activate VWFA for object naming
- Blind Braille readers also have a WFA, which does not require visual input (modality-independent representation)
Why might the VWFA be active in non visual recognition tasks?
Automatic links between nodes are established with learning, so sounds also activate VWFA (orthography)
Interactivity within the network may explain the brain evidence as a function of task
VWFA is located in the mapping from vision to meaning (ventral route) and connects to sound processing regions, so other active regions spread activity to it
Is the VWFA exclusive to reading?
VWFA results from developing expertise in reading, but it may not be exclusively involved in reading or in visual processing
What is the VWFA?
- The Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) is a part of the left occipito-temporal cortex that helps in recognizing written words.
- It processes visual word forms and connects them to phonology (how words sound) and semantics (meaning).
what does the phonological buffer help with?
performs the transformation from letters to sounds for words and non-words.
grapheme to phoneme
What is the dorsal (phonological) route responsible for in reading?
It helps with sounding out non-words and unfamiliar words by converting graphemes to phonemes.
What is the ventral (semantic) route responsible for in reading?
It is used for reading words silently, especially familiar words, by linking them directly to meaning.
What are the two main routes involved in reading?
The dorsal (phonological) route and the ventral (semantic) route.
What happens when sounding out non-words?
The dorsal (phonological) route is activated, involving the phonological buffer and articulation areas.
What happens when reading words silently?
Both the dorsal (phonological) route and the ventral (semantic) route are involved, with more emphasis on semantic processing.
What role does the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) play in reading?
It helps with letter identification and recognizing written words.
Developmental dyslexia symptoms
Difficulty in learning to read below standard appropriate to age
No apparent issue with spoken language
Hereditary component
Phonological impairment: decomposing words into individual sounds (phonological word representations)
do dyslexics read more globally or locally?
dyslexics can recognise words and have global representations of the words. Cannot do phonological analysis of the words. Pronouncing sounds.
what is mostly impaired in dyslexia?
Phonological awareness is impaired
example questions to test people for dyslexia
which words start with a different sound: bit, bat, cat? Say cat without the first sound, what word rhymes with pie?
deficits in developmental dyslexia
Deficits: non-word repetition, naming pictures (expressive vocabulary), phonological working memory, rhyming
How do adults with dyslexia develop strong reading skills?
They develop compensatory strategies and alternative neural networks to support reading.
What is the hypothesis about brain function in adult dyslexics?
The right hemisphere (RH) may take over some functions that the left hemisphere (LH) performs in typical readers.
What brain region is overactivated in adult dyslexics?
The right Broca’s area (right inferior frontal gyrus, IFG) shows increased activation.
Acquired phonological dyslexia (due to stroke)
Stroke in areas affecting dorsal route and sound analysis transferring letters to sounds
symptoms of Acquired phonological dyslexia
Visual word recognition and comprehension remain intact, but patients struggle to pronounce unfamiliar words. They read familiar words more accurately than non-words, often mistaking non-words for similar-looking familiar words (e.g., reading “fint” as “fine” or “poat” as “boat”).
Patients show deficits in phonological short-term memory and sound manipulation abilities (managed by the phonological buffer).
There is significant impairment in converting letters to sounds (grapheme-to-phoneme conversion) during both reading and writing tasks.
