Numerous functional neuroimaging studies have shown that most orthographic stimuli, such as printed English words, produce a left-lateralized response within the fusiform gyrus (FG) at a characteristic location termed the visual word form area (VWFA). We developed an experimental alphabet (FaceFont) comprising 35 face–phoneme pairs to disentangle phonological and perceptual influences on the lateralization of orthographic processing within the FG. Using functional imaging, we found that a region in the vicinity of the VWFA responded to FaceFont words more strongly in trained versus untrained participants, whereas no differences were observed in the right FG. The trained response magnitudes in the left FG region correlated with behavioral reading performance, providing strong evidence that the neural tissue recruited by training supported the newly acquired reading skill. These results indicate that the left lateralization of the orthographic processing is not restricted to stimuli with particular visual-perceptual features. Instead, lateralization may occur because the anatomical projections in the vicinity of the VWFA provide a unique interconnection between the visual system and left-lateralized language areas involved in the representation of speech.

Purpose: Most research examining long-term-memory effects on nonword repetition (NWR) has focused on lexical-level variables. Phoneme-level variables have received little attention, although there are reasons to expect significant sublexical effects in NWR. To further understand the underlying processes of NWR, this study examined effects of sublexical long-term phonological knowledge by testing whether performance differs when the stimuli comprise consonants acquired later versus earlier in speech development. Method: Thirty (Experiment 1) and 20 (Experiment 2) college students completed tasks that investigated whether an experimental phoneme-level variable (consonant age of acquisition) similarly affects NWR and lexical-access tasks designed to vary in articulatory, auditory-perceptual, and phonological short-term-memory demands. The lexical-access tasks were performed in silence or with concurrent articulation to explore whether consonant age-of-acquisition effects arise before or after articulatory planning. Results: NWR accuracy decreased on items comprising later-versus earlier-acquired phonemes. Similar consonant age-of-acquisition effects were observed in accuracy measures of nonword reading and lexical decision performed in silence or with concurrent articulation. Conclusion: Results indicate that NWR performance is sensitive to phoneme-level phonological knowledge in longterm memory. NWR, accordingly, should not be regarded as a diagnostic tool for pure impairment of phonological short-term memory.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the psychometric properties of a non-word repetition task (NRT), the Late-8 Non-word Repetition Task (L8NRT). This task was designed similarly to the NRT, but contains only Late-8 consonants to increase articulatory demands and avoid ceiling effects in studies with adolescents and adults. Thirty college students were administered the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised/Normative Update WRMT-RNU, L8NRT and NRT. Results showed that inter- and intra-rater reliability of the L8NRT were high; split-half reliability was significant and comparable to that of the NRT. Average L8NRT scores were significantly lower than NRT scores overall and at all non-word lengths but the shortest (1 syllable). Both measures correlated significantly, at similar levels, with Total WRMT-RNU score. We conclude that the psychometric properties of the L8NRT were acceptable, but an error analysis suggested ways in which the task might be improved to better control perceptual demands and articulatory feature overlap.

Writing systems vary in many ways, making it difficult to account for cross-linguistic neural differences. For example, orthographic processing of Chinese characters activates the midfusiform gyri (mFG) bilaterally, whereas the processing of English words predominantly activates the left mFG. Since Chinese and English vary in visual processing (holistic vs. analytical) and linguistic mapping principle (morphosyllabic vs. alphabetic), either factor could account for mFG laterality differences. We used artificial orthographies representing English to investigate the effect of mapping principle on mFG lateralization. The fMRI data were compared for two groups that acquired foundational proficiency: one for an alphabetic and one for an alphasyllabic artificial orthography. Greater bilateral mFG activation was observed in the alphasyllabic versus alphabetic group. The degree of bilaterality correlated with reading fluency for the learned orthography in the alphasyllabic but not alphabetic group. The results suggest that writing systems with a syllablebased mapping principle recruit bilateral mFG to support orthographic processing. Implications for individuals with left mFG dysfunction will be discussed.