Skip to main content
Advertisement
  • Neurology.org
  • Journals
    • Neurology
    • Clinical Practice
    • Genetics
    • Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation
    • Education
  • Online Sections
    • COVID-19
    • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-racism, & Social Justice (IDEAS)
    • Innovations in Care Delivery
    • Practice Buzz
    • Practice Current
    • Residents & Fellows
    • Without Borders
  • Collections
    • Topics A-Z
    • Disputes & Debates
    • Health Disparities
    • Infographics
    • Patient Pages
    • Null Hypothesis
    • Translations
  • Podcast
  • CME
  • About
    • About the Journals
    • Contact Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Author Center

Advanced Search

Main menu

  • Neurology.org
  • Journals
    • Neurology
    • Clinical Practice
    • Genetics
    • Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation
    • Education
  • Online Sections
    • COVID-19
    • Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Anti-racism, & Social Justice (IDEAS)
    • Innovations in Care Delivery
    • Practice Buzz
    • Practice Current
    • Residents & Fellows
    • Without Borders
  • Collections
    • Topics A-Z
    • Disputes & Debates
    • Health Disparities
    • Infographics
    • Patient Pages
    • Null Hypothesis
    • Translations
  • Podcast
  • CME
  • About
    • About the Journals
    • Contact Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Authors
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Author Center
  • Home
  • Latest Articles
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Residents & Fellows

User menu

  • Subscribe
  • My Alerts
  • Log in

Search

  • Advanced search
Neurology
Home
The most widely read and highly cited peer-reviewed neurology journal
  • Subscribe
  • My Alerts
  • Log in
Site Logo
  • Home
  • Latest Articles
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Residents & Fellows

Share

February 05, 2013; 80 (6) NeuroImages

Dejerine's reading area revisited with intracranial EEG

Selective responses to letter strings

Carlos M. Hamamé, Marcin Szwed, Michael Sharman, Juan R. Vidal, Marcella Perrone-Bertolotti, Philippe Kahane, Olivier Bertrand, Jean-Philippe Lachaux
First published February 4, 2013, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1212/WNL.0b013e31828154d9
Carlos M. Hamamé
From the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (C.M.H., M. Szwed), CNRS (UMR7290), Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (C.M.H., J.R.V., M.P.-B., O.B., J.-P.L.), Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CNRS (UMR5292), INSERM (U1028), Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Jagiellonian University (M. Szwed), Kraków, Poland; Université Pierre et Marie Curie University (M. Sharman), Paris; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (M. Sharman), Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, UMRS 975, Paris; and Grenoble University Hospital (P.K.), Grenoble, France.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Marcin Szwed
From the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (C.M.H., M. Szwed), CNRS (UMR7290), Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (C.M.H., J.R.V., M.P.-B., O.B., J.-P.L.), Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CNRS (UMR5292), INSERM (U1028), Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Jagiellonian University (M. Szwed), Kraków, Poland; Université Pierre et Marie Curie University (M. Sharman), Paris; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (M. Sharman), Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, UMRS 975, Paris; and Grenoble University Hospital (P.K.), Grenoble, France.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Michael Sharman
From the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (C.M.H., M. Szwed), CNRS (UMR7290), Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (C.M.H., J.R.V., M.P.-B., O.B., J.-P.L.), Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CNRS (UMR5292), INSERM (U1028), Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Jagiellonian University (M. Szwed), Kraków, Poland; Université Pierre et Marie Curie University (M. Sharman), Paris; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (M. Sharman), Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, UMRS 975, Paris; and Grenoble University Hospital (P.K.), Grenoble, France.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Juan R. Vidal
From the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (C.M.H., M. Szwed), CNRS (UMR7290), Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (C.M.H., J.R.V., M.P.-B., O.B., J.-P.L.), Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CNRS (UMR5292), INSERM (U1028), Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Jagiellonian University (M. Szwed), Kraków, Poland; Université Pierre et Marie Curie University (M. Sharman), Paris; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (M. Sharman), Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, UMRS 975, Paris; and Grenoble University Hospital (P.K.), Grenoble, France.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Marcella Perrone-Bertolotti
From the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (C.M.H., M. Szwed), CNRS (UMR7290), Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (C.M.H., J.R.V., M.P.-B., O.B., J.-P.L.), Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CNRS (UMR5292), INSERM (U1028), Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Jagiellonian University (M. Szwed), Kraków, Poland; Université Pierre et Marie Curie University (M. Sharman), Paris; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (M. Sharman), Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, UMRS 975, Paris; and Grenoble University Hospital (P.K.), Grenoble, France.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Philippe Kahane
From the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (C.M.H., M. Szwed), CNRS (UMR7290), Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (C.M.H., J.R.V., M.P.-B., O.B., J.-P.L.), Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CNRS (UMR5292), INSERM (U1028), Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Jagiellonian University (M. Szwed), Kraków, Poland; Université Pierre et Marie Curie University (M. Sharman), Paris; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (M. Sharman), Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, UMRS 975, Paris; and Grenoble University Hospital (P.K.), Grenoble, France.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Olivier Bertrand
From the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (C.M.H., M. Szwed), CNRS (UMR7290), Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (C.M.H., J.R.V., M.P.-B., O.B., J.-P.L.), Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CNRS (UMR5292), INSERM (U1028), Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Jagiellonian University (M. Szwed), Kraków, Poland; Université Pierre et Marie Curie University (M. Sharman), Paris; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (M. Sharman), Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, UMRS 975, Paris; and Grenoble University Hospital (P.K.), Grenoble, France.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Jean-Philippe Lachaux
From the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (C.M.H., M. Szwed), CNRS (UMR7290), Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille; Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (C.M.H., J.R.V., M.P.-B., O.B., J.-P.L.), Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, CNRS (UMR5292), INSERM (U1028), Université Lyon 1, Lyon, France; Jagiellonian University (M. Szwed), Kraków, Poland; Université Pierre et Marie Curie University (M. Sharman), Paris; Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (M. Sharman), Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle Épinière, UMRS 975, Paris; and Grenoble University Hospital (P.K.), Grenoble, France.
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Full PDF
Citation
Dejerine's reading area revisited with intracranial EEG
Selective responses to letter strings
Carlos M. Hamamé, Marcin Szwed, Michael Sharman, Juan R. Vidal, Marcella Perrone-Bertolotti, Philippe Kahane, Olivier Bertrand, Jean-Philippe Lachaux
Neurology Feb 2013, 80 (6) 602-603; DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e31828154d9

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Permissions

Make Comment

See Comments

Downloads
908

Share

  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Disclosures
Loading

The visual word form area in the ventral occipitotemporal cortex develops with acquisition of reading skills. It is debated whether this region is specialized for reading1 or is rather a general-purpose area associating visual form (words, objects) with meaning. An outline of this debate can be found in appendix e-1 on the Neurology® Web site at www.neurology.org. We recorded intracranial EEG in 2 patients with epilepsy (figures 1, e-1, and e-2) and found neural populations responding almost exclusively to letter strings, over 500% of all other responses. With the exception of the fusiform face area, such specific responses have never been described before in the human visual system.2 Strong specialization in the human brain can thus be achieved also through cultural learning.

Figure 1
  • Download figure
  • Open in new tab
  • Download powerpoint
Figure 1 Strong neural specialization for reading in the visual word form area: Recordings from depth electrodes

(A) Dejerine's drawing (1891)3 of the lesion in a patient “who suddenly observed that he could not read a single word, while he could write and speak quite well.” (B) Localization of the recording in patient P.M. (Talairach: −44x, −57y, −10z). (C) Mean broadband gamma response (50–150 Hz) to pronounceable pseudowords with a phonetic but no semantic dimension (e.g., “boutale”), unpronounceable consonant strings with no semantic or phonetic dimension (e.g., “qztvcw”), and other visual objects. We used pseudowords and consonant strings to minimize top-down lexical feedback that could arise for real words. (D) Trial-to-trial gamma power responses. Figure e-2 shows the T1 scan of one single patient's brain.

Footnotes

  • Supplemental data at www.neurology.org

  • Study funding: Supported by the Fondation pour la Recherche Medicale (FRM), BrainSync FP7 European Project (grant HEALTH-F2-2008-200728), and Agence Nationale de la Recherche OPENVIBE2 and MLA grants to J.R.V. and J.P.L. C.M.H. was supported by a Fyssen Fondation Postdoctoral Grant. M. Szwed was supported by a “Homing Plus” grant from the Foundation for Polish Science (2011-4/13) and a European Research Council Research grant (no. 230313).

  • Disclosure: The authors report no disclosures relevant to the manuscript. Go to Neurology.org for full disclosures.

  • © 2013 American Academy of Neurology

References

  1. 1.↵
    1. Dehaene S,
    2. Cohen L
    . The unique role of the visual word form area in reading [see also the accompanying opinion (246–253)]. Trends Cogn Sci 2011;15:254–262.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  2. 2.↵
    1. Vidal JR,
    2. Ossandon T,
    3. Jerbi K,
    4. et al
    . Category-specific visual responses: an intracranial study comparing gamma, beta, alpha, and ERP response selectivity. Front Hum Neurosci 2010;4:195.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  3. 3.↵
    1. Dejerine J
    . Sur un cas de cécité verbale avec agraphie suivi d'autopsie. Mém Soc Biol 1891;3:197–201.
    OpenUrl
View Abstract

Disputes & Debates: Rapid online correspondence

No comments have been published for this article.
Comment

REQUIREMENTS

If you are uploading a letter concerning an article:
You must have updated your disclosures within six months: http://submit.neurology.org

Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.

If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.

Submission specifications:

  • Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
  • Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
  • Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
  • Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
  • Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.

More guidelines and information on Disputes & Debates

Compose Comment

More information about text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Author Information
NOTE: The first author must also be the corresponding author of the comment.
First or given name, e.g. 'Peter'.
Your last, or family, name, e.g. 'MacMoody'.
Your email address, e.g. higgs-boson@gmail.com
Your role and/or occupation, e.g. 'Orthopedic Surgeon'.
Your organization or institution (if applicable), e.g. 'Royal Free Hospital'.
Publishing Agreement
NOTE: All authors, besides the first/corresponding author, must complete a separate Publishing Agreement Form and provide via email to the editorial office before comments can be posted.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.

Vertical Tabs

You May Also be Interested in

Back to top
  • Article
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Disclosures
Advertisement

Topics Discussed

  • Evoked Potentials/Visual
  • Intracranial electrodes
  • Functional neuroimaging

Alert Me

  • Alert me when eletters are published
Neurology: 98 (24)

Articles

  • Ahead of Print
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
  • Popular Articles
  • Translations

About

  • About the Journals
  • Ethics Policies
  • Editors & Editorial Board
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise

Submit

  • Author Center
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Information for Reviewers
  • AAN Guidelines
  • Permissions

Subscribers

  • Subscribe
  • Activate a Subscription
  • Sign up for eAlerts
  • RSS Feed
Site Logo
  • Visit neurology Template on Facebook
  • Follow neurology Template on Twitter
  • Visit Neurology on YouTube
  • Neurology
  • Neurology: Clinical Practice
  • Neurology: Genetics
  • Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation
  • Neurology: Education
  • AAN.com
  • AANnews
  • Continuum
  • Brain & Life
  • Neurology Today

Wolters Kluwer Logo

Neurology | Print ISSN:0028-3878
Online ISSN:1526-632X

© 2022 American Academy of Neurology

  • Privacy Policy
  • Feedback
  • Advertise