Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27325763›Full record

ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016

Decoding and disrupting left midfusiform gyrus activity during word reading.

Elizabeth A Hirshorn, Yuanning Li, Michael J Ward, R Mark Richardson, Julie A Fiez, Avniel Singh Ghuman

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 70 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
70citing papers in PubMed, 2 pooled it
18.6field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

70 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 141 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Trial
  4. Review
  5. Medial Pulvinar Nucleus as a Causal Hub for Heteromodal Naming.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

10 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Elizabeth A HirshornLearning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; hirshorn@pitt.edu.
Yuanning LiDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213; Program in Neural Computation, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213;ORCID 0000-0003-3277-0600
Michael J WardDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260;
R Mark RichardsonDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213;ORCID 0000-0003-2620-7387
Julie A FiezLearning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213; Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.
Avniel Singh GhumanDepartment of Neurological Surgery, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213; Program in Neural Computation, Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213;
University of Pittsburgh · US

Funding

Training in the Neurobiology of Neurological DiseaseT32NS086749 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI Omar El Gharbawie, REBECCA P SEAL · 2014 to 2026
$4.8M
Interdiscplinary Training in Computational NeuroscienceR90DA023426 · NIDA · CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY · PI KASS, ROBERT E, RUBIN, JONATHAN E. · 2006 to 2020
$4.5M
Multimodal Neuroimaging Training ProgramR90DA023420 · NIDA · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI GIANAROS, PETER J · 2006 to 2015
$3.1M
Inside the Social Perception Network: Dynamics, Connectivity, and StimulationR01MH107797 · NIMH · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI GHUMAN, AVNIEL S · 2015 to 2019
$2.4M
Reading and the Right FusiformR01HD060388 · NICHD · UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH AT PITTSBURGH · PI FIEZ, JULIE A · 2009 to 2013
$1.5M
NICHD NIH HHS R01 HD060388NIDA NIH HHS R90 DA023420NIDA NIH HHS R90 DA023426NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH107797NINDS NIH HHS T32 NS086749
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The nature of the visual representation for words has been fiercely debated for over 150 y. We used direct brain stimulation, pre- and postsurgical behavioral measures, and intracranial electroencephalography to provide support for, and elaborate upon, the visual word form hypothesis. This hypothesis states that activity in the left midfusiform gyrus (lmFG) reflects visually organized information about words and word parts. In patients with electrodes placed directly in their lmFG, we found that disrupting lmFG activity through stimulation, and later surgical resection in one of the patients, led to impaired perception of whole words and letters. Furthermore, using machine-learning methods to analyze the electrophysiological data from these electrodes, we found that information contained in early lmFG activity was consistent with an orthographic similarity space. Finally, the lmFG contributed to at least two distinguishable stages of word processing, an early stage that reflects gist-level visual representation sensitive to orthographic statistics, and a later stage that reflects more precise representation sufficient for the individuation of orthographic word forms. These results provide strong support for the visual word form hypothesis and demonstrate that across time the lmFG is involved in multiple stages of orthographic representation.

Indexed as

AdultDeep Brain StimulationFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedOccipital LobeReadingTemporal LobeVisual Perceptionelectrical stimulationfusiform gyrusintracranial EEGtemporal dynamicsword reading

Identifiers

PMID27325763
PMCPMC4961146
OpenAlexW2469834425

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.