Functional and anatomical changes in high-level visual cortex during reading acquisition

• Applicant: Dr. Marisa Johanna Nordt
• Subject Area: Biological Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience ; Human Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience
• Term: from 2019 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 419976827

Children require years of practice until they become skilled readers. A central component of fluent reading is fast visual processing of letters and words. How does learning to read affect ventral temporal cortex (VTC) – a cortical expanse that processes high-level visual information such as shapes or objects, including written words? The present proposal aims at investigating this question by analyzing functional and quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of a longitudinal study in 5-12-year-old children and adults. More precisely, the proposal explores how learning to read relates to changes in functional selectivity to words in VTC and to properties of gray matter underlying word-selective regions.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professorin Dr. Kalanit Grill-Spector