title: Chinese Character and English Word processing in children's ventral occipitotemporal cortex: fMRI evidence for script invariance.
abstract: Learning to read is thought to involve the recruitment of left hemisphere ventral occipitotemporal cortex (OTC) by a process of "neuronal recycling", whereby object processing mechanisms are co-opted for reading. Under the same theoretical framework, it has been proposed that the visual word form area (VWFA) within OTC processes orthographic stimuli independent of culture and writing systems, suggesting that it is universally involved in written language. However, this "script invariance" has yet to be demonstrated in monolingual readers of two different writing systems studied under the same experimental conditions. Here, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we examined activity in response to English Words and Chinese Characters in 1st graders in the United States and China, respectively. We examined each group separately and found the readers of English as well as the readers of Chinese to activate the left ventral OTC for their respective native writing systems (using both a whole-brain and a bilateral OTC-restricted analysis). Critically, a conjunction analysis of the two groups revealed significant overlap between them for native writing system processing, located in the VWFA and therefore supporting the hypothesis of script invariance. In the second part of the study, we further examined the left OTC region responsive to each group's native writing system and found that it responded equally to Object stimuli (line drawings) in the Chinese-reading children. In English-reading children, the OTC responded much more to Objects than to English Words. Together, these results support the script invariant role of the VWFA and also support the idea that the areas recruited for character or word processing are rooted in object processing mechanisms of the left OTC.
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Learning, Georgetown University Medical Center, 4000 Reservoir Road, Building D Suite 150, Washington, DC 20057, USA. Electronic address: ajk53@georgetown.edu.
authors.forename: Anthony J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Krafnick
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Room 409, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Building for Interdisciplinary Research, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. Electronic address: tanlh@szu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Li-Hai
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Tan
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Learning, Georgetown University Medical Center, 4000 Reservoir Road, Building D Suite 150, Washington, DC 20057, USA. Electronic address: lflowers@triad.rr.com.
authors.forename: D Lynn
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Flowers
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Learning, Georgetown University Medical Center, 4000 Reservoir Road, Building D Suite 150, Washington, DC 20057, USA. Electronic address: ml673@georgetown.edu.
authors.forename: Megan M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Luetje
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Learning, Georgetown University Medical Center, 4000 Reservoir Road, Building D Suite 150, Washington, DC 20057, USA. Electronic address: emn5@georgetown.edu.
authors.forename: Eileen M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Napoliello
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Room 409, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Building for Interdisciplinary Research, Pokfulam, Hong Kong. Electronic address: siok@hku.hk.
authors.forename: Wai-Ting
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Siok
authors.affiliation: University of Pittsburgh, Learning Research and Development Center, 3939 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. Electronic address: perfetti@pitt.edu.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Perfetti
authors.affiliation: Center for the Study of Learning, Georgetown University Medical Center, 4000 Reservoir Road, Building D Suite 150, Washington, DC 20057, USA. Electronic address: edeng@georgetown.edu.
authors.forename: Guinevere F
authors.initials: GF
authors.lastname: Eden
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D014175:Translating; D014481:United States
keywords: Orthography; Reading; Visual word form area; fMRI