title: Turning visual shapes into sounds: early stages of reading acquisition revealed in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex.
abstract: The exact role of the left ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC) during the initial stages of reading acquisition is a hotly debated issue, especially regarding the comparative effect of learning on early stimulus-dependent vs. later task-dependent processes. We show that this controversy can be solved with high-temporal resolution intracerebral EEG recordings of the VOTC. We measured High-Frequency Activity (50-150 Hz) as a proxy of population-level spiking activity while participants learned Japanese Katakana symbols, and found that learning primarily affects top-down/task-dependent neural processing, after a few minutes only. In contrast, adaptation of early bottom-up/stimulus-dependent processing takes several days to adapt and provides the basis for fluent reading. Such evidence that two consecutive stages of neural processing, stimulus- and task-dependent are differentially affected by learning, can reconcile seemingly opposite hypotheses on the role of the VOTC during reading acquisition.
authors.affiliation: Univ. Grenoble Alpes, LPNC, F-38040 Grenoble, France; CNRS, LPNC UMR 5105, F-38040 Grenoble, France; INSERM U1028-CNRS UMR5292, Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, F-69500 Lyon-Bron, France; University Claude Bernard, Lyon 1, F-69000 Lyon, France; INSERM, U836, Grenoble Institut des Neurosciences, 38700 La Tronche, France. Electronic address: perronemarcela@gmail.com.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Perrone-Bertolotti
authors.affiliation: INSERM U1028-CNRS UMR5292, Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, F-69500 Lyon-Bron, France; University Claude Bernard, Lyon 1, F-69000 Lyon, France.
authors.forename: J R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Vidal
authors.affiliation: CHU Grenoble and Department of Neurology, INSERM U704, F-38043 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: de Palma
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS (UMR 6146), Aix-Marseille Universite, 13003 Marseille Cedex, France.
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Hamamé
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Psiquiatría, Facultad de Medicina y Centro Interdisciplinario de Neurociencia, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, CL-8330024 Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ossandon
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U836, Grenoble Institut des Neurosciences, 38700 La Tronche, France; CHU Grenoble and Department of Neurology, INSERM U704, F-38043 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kahane
authors.affiliation: INSERM, U836, Grenoble Institut des Neurosciences, 38700 La Tronche, France; CHU Grenoble and Department of Neurology, INSERM U704, F-38043 Grenoble, France.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Minotti
authors.affiliation: INSERM U1028-CNRS UMR5292, Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, F-69500 Lyon-Bron, France; University Claude Bernard, Lyon 1, F-69000 Lyon, France.
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Bertrand
authors.affiliation: INSERM U1028-CNRS UMR5292, Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, F-69500 Lyon-Bron, France; University Claude Bernard, Lyon 1, F-69000 Lyon, France.
authors.forename: J-P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Lachaux
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004569:Electroencephalography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology