The distributed neural system for top-down letter processing: an fMRI study

Jiangang Liu; Lu Feng; Ling Li; Jie Tian

doi:10.1117/12.878044

15 March 2011 The distributed neural system for top-down letter processing: an fMRI study

Jiangang Liu, Lu Feng, Ling Li, Jie Tian

Proceedings Volume 7965, Medical Imaging 2011: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging; 79651R (2011) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.878044
Event: SPIE Medical Imaging, 2011, Lake Buena Vista (Orlando), Florida, United States

Abstract

This fMRI study used Psychophysiological interaction (PPI) to investigate top-down letter processing with an illusory letter detection task. After an initial training that became increasingly difficult, participant was instructed to detect a letter from pure noise images where there was actually no letter. Such experimental paradigm allowed for isolating top-down components of letter processing and minimizing the influence of bottom-up perceptual input. A distributed cortical network of top-down letter processing was identified by analyzing the functional connectivity patterns of letter-preferential area (LA) within the left fusiform gyrus. Such network extends from the visual cortex to high level cognitive cortexes, including the left middle frontal gyrus, left medial frontal gyrus, left superior parietal gyrus, bilateral precuneus, and left inferior occipital gyrus. These findings suggest that top-down letter processing contains not only regions for processing of letter phonology and appearance, but also those involved in internal information generation and maintenance, and attention and memory processing.

Citation Download Citation

Jiangang Liu, Lu Feng, Ling Li, and Jie Tian "The distributed neural system for top-down letter processing: an fMRI study", Proc. SPIE 7965, Medical Imaging 2011: Biomedical Applications in Molecular, Structural, and Functional Imaging, 79651R (15 March 2011); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.878044

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