Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33257877›Full record

ArticleNature human behaviour2021

Spatiotemporal dynamics of orthographic and lexical processing in the ventral visual pathway.

Oscar Woolnough, Cristian Donos, Patrick S Rollo, Kiefer J Forseth, Yair Lakretz, Nathan E Crone, Simon Fischer-Baum, Stanislas Dehaene, Nitin Tandon

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature human behaviour, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
80citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
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

80 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Article
  4. Simultaneous Cortical Responses to Multiple Written Words.Journal of cognitive neuroscience · 2026
    Article
  5. Article
  6. Review
  7. Simultaneous cortical responses to multiple written words.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026
    Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Text Sequence Stimulation for High-Speed and Comfortable SSVEP-BCI.Cyborg and bionic systems (Washington, D.C.) · 2026
    Article
  14. From retinotopic to ordinal coding: Dissecting the cortical stages of visual word recognition.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  15. Article
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20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Oscar WoolnoughVivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, McGovern Medical School at UT Health Houston, Houston, TX, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5878-6865
Cristian DonosVivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, McGovern Medical School at UT Health Houston, Houston, TX, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2181-062X
Patrick S RolloVivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, McGovern Medical School at UT Health Houston, Houston, TX, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6758-4448
Kiefer J ForsethVivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, McGovern Medical School at UT Health Houston, Houston, TX, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1624-8329
Yair LakretzCognitive Neuroimaging Unit CEA, INSERM, NeuroSpin Center, Université Paris-Sud and Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Nathan E CroneDepartment of Neurology, Johns Hopkins Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7950-2617
Simon Fischer-BaumDepartment of Psychological Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6067-0538
Stanislas DehaeneCognitive Neuroimaging Unit CEA, INSERM, NeuroSpin Center, Université Paris-Sud and Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
Nitin TandonVivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, McGovern Medical School at UT Health Houston, Houston, TX, USA. nitin.tandon@uth.tmc.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2752-2365

Funding

A unified cognitive network model of languageU01NS098981 · NINDS · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON · PI CRONE, NATHAN E, TANDON, NITIN · 2016 to 2018
$3.0M
Brain Networks of Noun GenerationR01DC014589 · NIDCD · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON · PI TANDON, NITIN · 2015 to 2019
$2.0M
Cortical Dynamics during Speech ProductionF30DC017083 · NIDCD · UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS HLTH SCI CTR HOUSTON · PI FORSETH, KIEFER · 2018 to 2020
$64k
NIDCD NIH HHS F30 DC017083NIDCD NIH HHS R01 DC014589NINDS NIH HHS U01 NS098981
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Reading is a rapid, distributed process that engages multiple components of the ventral visual stream. To understand the neural constituents and their interactions that allow us to identify written words, we performed direct intra-cranial recordings in a large cohort of humans. This allowed us to isolate the spatiotemporal dynamics of visual word recognition across the entire left ventral occipitotemporal cortex. We found that mid-fusiform cortex is the first brain region sensitive to lexicality, preceding the traditional visual word form area. The magnitude and duration of its activation are driven by the statistics of natural language. Information regarding lexicality and word frequency propagates posteriorly from this region to visual word form regions and to earlier visual cortex, which, while active earlier, show sensitivity to words later. Further, direct electrical stimulation of this region results in reading arrest, further illustrating its crucial role in reading. This unique sensitivity of mid-fusiform cortex to sub-lexical and lexical characteristics points to its central role as the orthographic lexicon-the long-term memory representations of visual word forms.

Indexed as

PsycholinguisticsReadingAdultElectric StimulationElectrocorticographyHumansMemory, Long-TermOccipital LobePattern Recognition, VisualTemporal LobeTime FactorsVisual CortexVisual PathwaysYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID33257877
PMCPMC10365894

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceTDM
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.