title: Origins of the specialization for letters and numbers in ventral occipitotemporal cortex.
abstract: Deep in the occipitotemporal cortex lie two functional regions, the visual word form area (VWFA) and the number form area (NFA), which are thought to play a special role in letter and number recognition, respectively. We review recent progress made in characterizing the origins of these symbol form areas in children or adults, sighted or blind subjects, and humans or monkeys. We propose two non-mutually-exclusive hypotheses on the origins of the VWFA and NFA: the presence of a connectivity bias, and a sensitivity to shape features. We assess the explanatory power of these hypotheses, describe their consequences, and offer several experimental tests.
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Unité 992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Gif-sur-Yvette, France; Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Division Sciences de la Vie (DSV), Institut d'Imagerie Biomédicale (I2BM), NeuroSpin Center, Paris, France. Electronic address: thomas.hannagan@cea.fr.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hannagan
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Neurobiology, The Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada, Faculty of Medicine, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91220, Israel; The Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91220, Israel; The Cognitive Science Program, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91220, Israel; Sorbonne Universités, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (UPMC), Université Paris 06, Institut de la Vision, Unité Mixte de Recherche en Santé (UMRS) 968, Paris 75012, France.
authors.forename: Amir
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amedi
authors.affiliation: INSERM, Centre de Recherches de l'Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Epinière, UMRS 975, Paris, France; UPMC-Paris 6, Faculté de Médecine Pitié-Salpêtrière, 75013 Paris, France; Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris, Groupe Hospitalier Pitié-Salpêtrière, Department of Neurology, 75651 Paris, France; Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Unité Mixte de Recherche (UMR) 7225, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Unité 992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Gif-sur-Yvette, France; Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Division Sciences de la Vie (DSV), Institut d'Imagerie Biomédicale (I2BM), NeuroSpin Center, Paris, France; Université Paris Sud, Orsay, France.
authors.forename: Ghislaine
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dehaene-Lambertz
authors.affiliation: Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM), Unité 992, Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, Gif-sur-Yvette, France; Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), Division Sciences de la Vie (DSV), Institut d'Imagerie Biomédicale (I2BM), NeuroSpin Center, Paris, France; Université Paris Sud, Orsay, France; Collège de France, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Stanislas
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Dehaene
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003210:Concept Formation / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008433:Mathematics; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology; D009778:Occipital Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: NFA; VWFA; cortical topology; invariance; metamodal areas; structural connectivity