title: Words in Context: The Effects of Length, Frequency, and Predictability on Brain Responses During Natural Reading.
abstract: Word length, frequency, and predictability count among the most influential variables during reading. Their effects are well-documented in eye movement studies, but pertinent evidence from neuroimaging primarily stem from single-word presentations. We investigated the effects of these variables during reading of whole sentences with simultaneous eye-tracking and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fixation-related fMRI). Increasing word length was associated with increasing activation in occipital areas linked to visual analysis. Additionally, length elicited a U-shaped modulation (i.e., least activation for medium-length words) within a brain stem region presumably linked to eye movement control. These effects, however, were diminished when accounting for multiple fixation cases. Increasing frequency was associated with decreasing activation within left inferior frontal, superior parietal, and occipito-temporal regions. The function of the latter region-hosting the putative visual word form area-was originally considered as limited to sublexical processing. An exploratory analysis revealed that increasing predictability was associated with decreasing activation within middle temporal and inferior frontal regions previously implicated in memory access and unification. The findings are discussed with regard to their correspondence with findings from single-word presentations and with regard to neurocognitive models of visual word recognition, semantic processing, and eye movement control during reading.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg,  5020 Salzburg, Austria.|Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg,  5020 Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Schuster
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg,  5020 Salzburg, Austria.|Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg,  5020 Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hawelka
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg,  5020 Salzburg, Austria.|Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg,  5020 Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hutzler
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg,  5020 Salzburg, Austria.|Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg,  5020 Salzburg, Austria.|Neuroscience Institute, Christian-Doppler Klinik, Paracelsus Medical University, 5020 Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kronbichler
authors.affiliation: Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Salzburg,  5020 Salzburg, Austria.|Department of Psychology, University of Salzburg,  5020 Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Richlan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D032882:Comprehension / Q000502:physiology; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D012660:Semantics
keywords: eye movement control during reading; functional magnetic resonance imaging; lexical processing; semantic processing; visual word form area (VWFA)