1) Learning to read activates areas in the occipital and fusiform gyri that are normally used for visual processing. This leads to the development of the visual word form area which processes letters and words. 2) Reading engagement recruits a large left hemisphere network including frontal, temporoparietal, and occipitotemporal regions that is similar between children and adults. 3) Specific brain regions including Broca's area, the fusiform gyrus, and visual cortex undergo changes when learning to read to support reading, writing, spelling and language comprehension.

1. How the Brain Learns to
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2. Cortical Competition
Learning to Read Causes the Brain to Re-Use its Natural Resources
• The occipital lobe inherits the ability to see faces,
houses, and patterns.
• Exposure to letters and words (~6.5 years old)
activates the fusiform gyrus to recruit substrate from
the occipital lobe resulting in print-sensitivity.
• The modified area is called the visual word form
area (VWFA).
• VWFA/Occipitotemporal region stores words.Cortical competition leads to neuroplasticity.
VWFAFusiform
Gyrus
(Bach, et al., 2013; Brem, Bach, Kucian, et al., 2009; Carreiras, Seghier, Baquero, et al., 2009; 2013; Dehaene, et al., 2010;
Frey & Fischer, 2010; Haier & Jung, 2008; Fiebach, et al., 2002)
fMRISagittal View
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3. • Modified print-sensitive area
• Process grapheme-phonemes
• Word reading
• Writing and spelling words
• Understand written language
• Understand meaning
(Brem, et al., 2010; Broc, et al., 2011; Bolger, et al., 2005;
Dehaene, 2013; Hubbard, 2007; Roux, et al., 2009)
Visual Word Form Area (VWFA)
Critical Component of the Mature Reading and Writing Networks
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Wikipedia: The free enclopedia, 3 April 2017

4. Modification of Reading and Spelling Language Areas
(Biton, et al., 2005; 2013; Dehaene, 2013; Dehaene, et al., 2010; ; James & Gauthier, 2006; Practical Neurology,
2012; Rapp & Lipka, 2011; Wikipedia Foundation, Inc., 2008)
Intraparietal
Gyrus
Intraparietal Sulcus
(Visual Reading only)
Learning to read modifies the language areas. The
Broca’s area, middle of the fusiform gyrus and the
visual cortex network undergo considerable changes.
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The middle section of the fusiform gyrus
and VWFA are a part of writing system
across cultures

5. The Major Neural Components Rewired for Reading
Gazzaniga, et al., 2002 in Sousa, 2005, p. 60)
5ozella.brundidge@gmail.com 4/20/2017
angular
gyrus
supramarginal
gyrus
Inferior
temporal
gyrus

6. Learning to Read during Childhood Creates
Connective Pathways between the Left and Right Hemispheres
A previous MRI and DTI tractography analysis revealed strong
inter-hemispheric pathways linking the left angular and dorsal
occipital gyri with their homologous structures through the
splenium area of the corpus callosum in adults who learned to
read during childhood. These pathways were missing in adult
subjects who were illiterate, and organized structurally different
in adults who learned to read in adulthood.
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(Sajan, et al., 2013)
(Carreiras, Seghier, Baquero, Estevez, Lozano, Devlin, & Price, 2009) ozella.brundidge@gmail.com 4/18/2017

7. Letter Processing Automatically Recruits a
Left-Hemisphere Sensory-Motor
Brain Network
Fusiform
Gyrus
(BA 37)
Inferior Frontal
Gyrus
(Broca's BA 44)
(James & Gauthier, 2006)
(x,y,z) -37, -49, -5
(x,y,z) -53, -6, 41
(x,y,z) -35, -23, 53
(x,y,z) -43, 15, 23
Dorsal Precentral
(BA 6)
Cuneus
5 Cortical Regions
Ventral Precentral
(Exner’s area)
(BA 6)
Letter Processing Automatically Recruits a
Left-Hemisphere Sensory-Motor
Brain Network
MNI atlas coordinates
template
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Wikipedia 3 April 2017

8. Brain Regions with Significant Activation Differences between
Words and Pseudowords
Words Elicited Greater Activations in the:
• Posterior left middle temporal gyrus (pMTG)
• Middle occipital gyri (MOG)
• Inferior occipital gyri (IOG)
• Lateral occipital sulci (latOS) bilaterally
• Bilaterally on the basal surface along the
collateral sulcus (CS)
• Fusiform gyrus (FG)
• Inferior occipito-temporal
• Lateral occipito-temporal sulcus (latOTS)
(Fiebach, Friederici, Muller, & von Cramon, 2002)
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9. Reading Engages Most of the Left Hemisphere
Language Areas in Children
A Large-Scale Left
Hemisphere Reading
Network includes:
• Frontal
• Temporoparietal
• Occipitotemporal
Regions
OTR
AG
Rt InsulaLeft Hemisphere
Inferior frontal gyrus (IFG); Visual word form area (VWFA); Occipitotemporal region (OTR); Angular gyrus (AG)
(Houde´, Rossi, Lubin, & Joliot, 2010)
A previous Activation Likelihood Estimation (ALE) study included 800 children and adolescents. Findings:
the frontal, temporo-parietal, and occipitotemporal activations during reading tasks were very similar to those
reported in adult studies.
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10. The Broca’s area’s Pars Opercularis was Activated during Word
Ordering Tasks, while the Left Medial Planum Temporale was Active
during Word Storage during Sentence Processing Tasks
Meyers’ study outcome show brain activations and signal change (bar plots) for the ordering effect (red)
and the storage effect (blue). For the ordering factor 64.8 % of the activation cluster was in the left BA 44
(Broca’s pars opercularis). Activation was found in the medial left planum temporale (within the
Wernicke’s area and adjacent to the supramarginal gyrus) for the storage factor.
(Meyers, et al., 2012)
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11. Auditory center:
from the most
anterior part of T1
(T1a)
Through the planum
temporale (PT)
To the supramarginal
gyrus (SMG)
Four of the Six Temporal Clusters involved with Phonology, Semantics, and
Sentence Processing are Segregated along the Superior Temporal Sulcus (STS)
Superior Temporal Sulcus
(STS)
(Vigneau, Beaucousin, Herve, Duffau, Crivello, Houde, Mazoyer, & Tzourio-Mazoyer, 2006)
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T1-Superior Temporal Gyrus

12. Diffusion Tensor Imaging Data Revealed the Importance of
Left-Lateralized White Matter Structures for Reading Development
(van Eimeren, Grabner, Koschutnig, Reishofer, Ebner, & Ansari, 2010;
Ben-Shachar, et al, 2007 in 2010)
Left Superior
Corona Radiata
Left Superior
Longitudinal Fasciculus
Researchers found association between reading
achievements and two white matter tracks
(lSCR; Deutsch et al., 2005; Klingberg et al., 2000; Niogi &
McCandliss, 2006; Odegard et al., 2009)
(lSLF; Beaulieu et al., 2005; Deutsch et al., 2005;
Niogi and McCandliss, 2006).
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2010)

13. Development of Pre-Reading Skills
Activate Language Regions
Kindergarten children performing at the normal
range of pre-reading skills display progressive
increase activation in the posterior superior
temporal gyrus.
They demonstrate enhance activation to speech
in the planum temporale.
(Blomert, 2011; Dehaene, et al., 2010; Nucleus Medical Media, Inc., 2013; Simos, et al., 2013)
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PT is inside the
Wernicke’s area

14. English, French, and Italian children with Poor Reading Skills
Experience Reduced Activation in the Auditory System Across the
Left Superior Temporal Gyrus
(Frey & Fischer, 2010; Wikipedia, 2014 April 9; Brundidge, 2014)
Intact Auditory Processing Network
Affect Reading Skills
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15. Phonemic Discrimination Left Superior
Temporal Gyrus
Activated
by
(Ashtari, Lencz, Zuffante, Bilder, Clarke, Diamond, Kane, & Szeszko, 2004)
Left Middle
Temporal Gyrus
Volunteers listened to phonemes and tones while undergoing an fMRI. Comparison of phonemic
discrimination with tone discrimination revealed pure left lateralization activations in the superior
temporal gyrus (STG) and middle temporal gyrus (MTG). In addition, there was stronger activation
in the left hemisphere while discriminating speech from non-speech sound.
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16. Wernicke’ s Area
Language Comprehension Center
Phonological Processing
Decoding Words
Verbal Abilities
Understanding
Meaningful Speech
Visual Cognition
Understanding
Written Language
(Barde, Yeatman, Lee, Glover, & Feldman, 2012; Carreiras, et al., 2009; Cerruti, 2010; Frey & Fischer, 2010;
Trollinger., 2010; Weems & Reggia, 2006)
Phonological
Discrimination
Decoding
Phonemes
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Lifescripts, 2017
Wordpress.com (2013)

17. Wernicke’s Area is the Language Comprehension Center
• Syntactic Comprehension
Language rules of the culture
• Semantic Cognition
Understanding meaning
• Auditory Short-Term
Immediate and Working Memory
• Lexical Representation
Auditory word bank
(Barde, et al., 2012; Leff, Schofield, Crinion et al. 2009; Navigate Your Life, n.d.; Wright, et al., 2012)
Hickok, et al., 2009
Receptive Language Processing
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18. Left Middle Temporal Gyrus
Stores Verbal Knowledge
• Activity contributes to future reading skills predictions
• Semantics
• Grapheme–phoneme decoding
• Access lexical and semantic information from
sound-to-meaning network
• Medial temporal lobe (V5/MT) Motion
• Stores mental lexicon
(Bach, et al., 2011; Hickok and Poeppel, 2000, 2004, 2007 and Vigneau et al., 2006 in Bach, et al., 2011; Fiebach, et
al., 2002; Martin, et al., 1995)
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Wikipedia, 2012, December 12)

19. Right Hemisphere’s Semantic Performance
Does Not Depend upon Tissue Integrity
(Caplan, Chen, & Waters, 1996; Tyler, Wright, Stamatakis, & 2011; Wright, et al., 2012)
Right Middle Temporal Gyrus
Right Superior Temporal Gyrus
Semantic performance correlated
with activation in the right
superior temporal and middle
temporal gyri regardless of tissue
integrity.
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20. Posterior Inferior Temporal Gyrus (pITG)
Phonological Cluster
Increased activation during
• Letter and pseudoword reading
• Grapheme-phonemic conversion
• Audiovisual integration of syllables
• Presentation of faces pronouncing syllables
(Vigneau 2006 Meta-analysis: Beauregard, 1997; Paulesu, 2000, Calvert, 1999, Sekiyama, 2003; Cohen, 2002; Fiez, 1999; Hagoort,
1999; Adams & Janata, 2002; Kosslyn, 1994; Martin, 1995; Thompson-Schill, 1995; Wiggs, 1999; Damasio, 2001; Buckner, 2000;
Booth, 2002; Binder, 2003; Chee, 1998; Crosson, 1999; Etard, 1999; Vingerhoets, 2003; Warburton, 1996)
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Inferior Temporal Gyrus

21. Semantic Cluster
(Vigneau 2006 Meta-analysis: Beauregard, 1997; Paulesu, 2000, Calvert, 1999, Sekiyama, 2003; Cohen, 2002; Fiez, 1999; Hagoort,
1999; Adams & Janata, 2002; Kosslyn, 1994; Martin, 1995; Thompson-Schill, 1995; Wiggs, 1999; Damasio, 2001; Buckner, 2000;
Booth, 2002; Binder, 2003; Chee, 1998; Crosson, 1999; Etard, 1999; Vingerhoets, 2003; Warburton, 1996)
• Slightly ventral (6mm) of phonological cluster
• Reading words
• Recruited by semantic association tasks involving pictures of objects or visual scenes
• Verbal processing - Sensitive to verbal semantic priming
• Verbal semantic knowledge retrieval
• Categorization and word generation
• Fast access to deep semantic processing in multiple modalities
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Posterior Inferior Temporal Gyrus (pITG)
StudyBlue.com, 2017;
Michael, P., 06/15/2014

22. Broca’s Area and Supramarginal Gyri
Sentence Processing Regions
Broca’s area involved in
• Ordering of the verb and its arguments
(subject and object)
Supramarginal Gyrus
• Storing sentences while reading
Left Broca’s
Area
Supramarginal
Gyrus
(Deschamps, et al., 2013; Meyer, et al., 2012; Ravizza, Hazeltine, Ruiz, & Zhu, 2011; Trollinger, 2010)
Grammar
Verbal working
memory
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23. • Activated by visually presented words and symbols
• Encode visual, non-verbal, and verbal stimuli
• Decode verbal phonological or orthographic stimuli
• Rapid naming of letters and objects
• Store sentences
• Process complex syntax in sentences
(Biton, et al., 2005; Cerruti, 2010; Davis, et al., 2008; Meyers, et al., 2012; Misra, Katzir, Wolf, & Poldrack, 2004 in Wolf,
Barzillai, Gottwald, et al., 2009; Trollinger, 2010; Wright, et al., 2012)
Broca’s Area
Language and Speech Production
MCAT Basics, 2015
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24. Ventral Pars Triangularis Involvement in
Sentence Processing
(Vigneau 2006 Meta-analysis: Adams & Janata, 2002; Binder, 1996; Bright, 2004; Hagoort, 1999; Constable, 2004; Perini, 1999;
Buchanan, 2000; Heim, 2002; Savage, 2001; Vingerhoet, 2003; Martin, 1995)
Inferior Frontal Lobe
Broca's (BA 45)
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16 Semantic Peaks
Grammatical processing
• Lexical categorization
• Verb and gender categorization
• Organization of a list using semantic associations
• Generation of words or action
• Semantic association
• Semantic decision
(Friederici, 2011)

25. Ventral Pars Triangularis Involvement in
Sentence Processing
(Vigneau 2006 Meta-analysis: Adams & Janata, 2002; Binder, 1996; Bright, 2004; Hagoort, 1999; Constable, 2004; Perini, 1999;
Buchanan, 2000; Heim, 2002; Savage, 2001; Vingerhoet, 2003; Martin, 1995)
Inferior Frontal Lobe
Broca's (BA 45)
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14 Syntactic Peaks
• Semantic cluster and syntactic peaks were
7mm apart and did not differ. Vigneau’s cluster
standard deviation ranged from 8 to 19.5mm
• There was no pure syntactic role at the above
resolution
The triangularis was activated during both Syntactic Decision
and Working Memory tasks, suggesting that it is recruited by
working memory during the comprehension of complex
reading materials. (Friederici, 2011)

26. DTI Study shows Arcuate Fasciculus (AF)
3-D Structure and Connections between Language Regions
• AF connects the precentral gyrus and
Broca’s pars opercularis to the lateral pSTG
and the Planum temporale
• Transport linguistic messages
• Assembles meaningful strings
• Critical for higher-order language functions
• Expressive language functioning
Diffusion Tensor Image (DTI)
(Billeci, et al., 2012; The-Crankshaft Publishing’s, 2012; Frey & & Fisher, 2012; Rilling, Glasser, Preuss, et al., 2008; Vigneau, et al.,
2006; Wyble, 2006)
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Arcuate Fasciculus
(Rodrigo, Naggara, Oppenheim, Golestani, Poupon,
Cointepas, Mangin, et al., 2007)
Precentral Gyrus
Broca’s area

27. Sight Vocabulary
…is the Mental Lexicon that is stored in both the
Left Posterior Middle Temporal Gyrus (MTG) and
the
Visual Word Form Area /Occipitotemporal Region
(VWFA/OTR) Bilaterally
- Fiebach, et al., 2002
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(University at Buffalo, 2015)

28. Researchers suggest that there is poor connectivity
between frontal cortical areas responsible for executive
control Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 9) and other
regions of the brain such as the Left Perisylvian language
system (LPS) and the inferior parietal lobule).
Wernicke’s
area
Supramarginal
gyrus
(Frye, Malmberg, de Souza, & Landry, 2009)
Superior
Temporal
Gyri
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(Voytek, 2013)
LPS

29. Graphophonological
Route
Lexicosemantic
Route
Coactivation of
Secondary Structures
Visual
Word
Form Area
(VWFA)
Basal ITG
(BA 20)
Posterior MTG
(BA 21)
(Jobard, Crivello, & Tzourio-Mazoyer, 2003)
Auditory Center
BA 41 & 42
Semantic
Areas
Broca’s
Opercularis
(BA 44) part
of the IFG
STG
Region -
Wernicke’s
(BA 22)
Supramarginal
gyrus
(BA 40)
Broca’s Triangular
part of IFG (BA 45)
Left Lateral
Language Structures
Arcuate
Fasciculus
Uncinate
fasciculate
Ventral
Stream
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30. A Quick Overview -
Structure and Function
of the Dorsolateral
Prefrontal Cortex
30
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
influence functional behaviors
controlled by other grey and
white matter structures of the
brain using the neurotransmitter
dopamine. The prefrontal cortex
indirectly influences reading
comprehension.
Behaviors
Neurotransmitter
GreyMatterandWhiteMatterofBrain

31. Learning How to Read is an
Internal and External Collaborative Effort
Anatomic Language
Areas
Recruitment of
Inherited Structures
Neuroplasticity Increase Connectivity
Social Maturity
Neural Activation
Inter-hemisphere
communication
Environmental
Experiences
31
Nutrition is a Key Factor