title: Neural activations correlated with reading speed during reading novels.
abstract: Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure neural activations in subjects instructed to silently read novels at ordinary and rapid speeds. Among the 19 subjects, 8 were experts in a rapid reading technique. Subjects pressed a button to turn pages during reading, and the interval between turning pages was recorded to evaluate the reading speed. For each subject, we evaluated activations in 14 areas and at 2 instructed reading speeds. Neural activations decreased with increasing reading speed in the left middle and posterior superior temporal area, left inferior frontal area, left precentral area, and the anterior temporal areas of both hemispheres, which have been reported to be active for linguistic processes, while neural activation increased with increasing reading speed in the right intraparietal sulcus, which is considered to reflect visuo-spatial processes. Despite the considerable reading speed differences, correlation analysis showed no significant difference in activation dependence on reading speed with respect to the subject groups and instructed reading speeds. The activation reduction with speed increase in language-related areas was opposite to the previous reports for low reading speeds. The present results suggest that subjects reduced linguistic processes with reading speed increase from ordinary to rapid speed.
authors.affiliation: Biological ICT Group, National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 588-2, Iwaoka, Iwaoka-cho, Nishi-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 651-2492, Japan. fujimaki@po.nict.go.jp
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fujimaki
authors.forename: Shinji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Munetsuna
authors.forename: Toyofumi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sasaki
authors.forename: Tomoe
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hayakawa
authors.forename: Aya
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ihara
authors.forename: Qiang
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Terazono
authors.forename: Tsutomu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Murata
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011932:Reading; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology