CAREER: Mapping the neural locus of cognitive processes in word reading

阅读书面文字的能力取决于一系列复杂的转换，从眼睛的刺激模式到单词拼写、发音和含义的神经表征。这些转变在识字的成年人中迅速而自动地发生，尽管书面语言是一种相对较新的文化发明，阅读是在学校里学到的东西，而不是在没有正式教学的情况下获得的。人们在理解人们如何阅读文字方面取得了迅速的进步--无论是在这些转换所涉及的计算过程的更好模型方面，还是在更好地理解大脑如何对书面刺激做出反应方面。该项目旨在弥合这些计算和认知神经科学方法，使用来自神经成像研究的大脑活动数据来回答有关人们如何阅读的一些基本问题。大脑使用什么代码来识别书面文字？个体在处理书面文字的方式上有何不同？人们读单词的方式是否会因语境的不同而有所不同？在回答这些问题时，本研究的最终目标是发展一个阅读的神经认知理论，可以为人们如何阅读单词提供重要的见解。这反过来又可以通过告知识字教育，治疗学习障碍或修复脑损伤后的语言障碍来造福社会。该项目的目标将通过收集人们阅读时的功能神经成像数据，并通过映射不同认知阅读过程和不同大脑活动模式的方法进行分析来实现。通过使用这种方法，PI可以识别由单个刺激引起的大脑活动的模式，并计算所有刺激对之间的模式的相似性。然后，他们可以将这些基于大脑的相似性度量与来自阅读计算模型的相似性正式预测进行比较。考虑一下DOUGH与坚韧、SEW和BREAD的关系; DOUGH的拼写与坚韧相似，发音与SEW相似，并且具有与BREAD相关的含义。按照这种分析的逻辑，DOUGH对坚韧产生类似反应，而对BREAD或SEW没有类似反应的大脑区域可以被解释为涉及单词拼写的神经表征的区域。通过这种方式，目前的方法提供了一种将神经活动与认知操作联系起来的工具。使用这种技术，拟议中的研究将测试竞争的计算模型的前端的阅读系统，评估如何在一个任务的差异改变阅读相关的过程和评估个人差异的认知过程中使用的熟练的读者。这个项目将推进研究方法，桥接认知和神经科学数据的计算理论，这可能是有用的认知科学中的许多问题。沿着同样的路线，该项目包括开发新的方法来教学生从高中，到大学，到研究生院如何思考大脑数据和认知理论之间的关系的教育目标。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的评估使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

The ability to read written words depends on a complex series of transformations, ranging from patterns of stimulation on the eye to neural representations of a word's spelling, pronunciation and meaning. These transformations occur quickly and automatically in literate adults, despite the fact that written language is a relatively recent cultural invention and that reading is something learned in school rather than acquired without formal teaching. Rapid advances have been made in the understanding of how people read words - both in terms of better models of the computational processes involved in these transformations and better understanding of how the brain responds to written stimuli. This project aims to bridge these computational and cognitive neuroscience approaches, using brain activity data from neuroimaging studies to answer some fundamental questions about how people read. What code does the brain use to recognize written words? How do individuals differ in how they process written words? Do people read words differently depending on the context in which they are read? In answering these questions, the ultimate goal of this research is to develop a neurocognitive theory of reading that can provide critical insights into how people read words. This in turn can benefit society by informing literacy education, the treatment of learning disabilities or the remediation of language loss after brain injury.This project's goal will be achieved by collecting functional neuroimaging data while people read, and analyzing it with an approach that maps between different cognitive reading processes and different patterns of brain activity. By using this approach, the PI can identify the pattern of brain activity elicited by individual stimuli, and calculate the similarity in the pattern between all pairs of stimuli. They can then compare these brain-based similarity measures to formal predictions of similarity derived from computational models of reading. Consider how DOUGH relates to the words TOUGH, SEW and BREAD; DOUGH is spelled similarly to TOUGH, sounds similar to SEW, and has a meaning related to BREAD. Using the logic of this analysis, brain regions in which DOUGH elicits a similar response to TOUGH, but not to BREAD or SEW can be interpreted as regions involved in the neural representation of word spellings. In this way, the current approach provides a tool for linking neural activity to cognitive operations. Using this technique, the proposed research will test competing computational models of the front end of the reading system, evaluate how differences in a task alter reading-related processes and assess individual differences in the cognitive processes used by skilled readers. This project will advance research methods in bridging computational theories of cognition and neuroscience data that could be useful for many questions in cognitive science. Along the same lines, the project includes the educational goal of developing new approaches to teaching students from high school, through college, and into graduate school how to think about the relationship between brain data and cognitive theories.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.