THE ROLE OF VISUAL EXPERTISE IN LETTER PERCEPTION

描述(摘自申请者的摘要)：行为、功能大脑 成像(FMRI)、电生理(ERP)和神经心理学实验 将调查字母是如何被感知的。该项目的动机是 条纹外字体和字母的专门化核算框架 通过详细分析大脑皮层的不同认知目标和 可用于识别这些类别的信息。这些实验 我将评估这样一种假设，即专家信函有什么“特殊”之处 感知是字母风格的规律性(包括方位、大小写 和字体)用于促进字母识别(访问字母 身份)。特别是，我们将调查读者如何学习使用 印刷的规律性如何促进基本层面上的字母感知 这种能力不同于一般的对象识别策略，以及它是否 导致视觉皮质中字母特定区域的专门化。 这个项目有四个目标： I)确定特定于体验过的读者的方式的行为影响 识别字母； 二)研究视觉皮层字母选择区域的基本特性 事件相关电位和功能磁共振成像； 三)使用行为、功能磁共振和事件相关电位测量来调查这一假设 阅读障碍者阅读能力差的病史导致 信特制专门化不规范； 四)对视皮层专门化区域损伤的测试预测 用于后天性外周性阅读障碍(纯失读症)患者的字母。 这项研究将调查视觉因素在多大程度上对 信件的专门化。要了解这些信息是必要的 语言对阅读的影响，并将扩展一个新兴的框架 纹外皮层类别特异性效应的解释 通过最适合不同行业的流程的经验进行招聘 认可目标。理解专家信函认知的特征是什么 也是理解没有获得这种专业知识的障碍所必需的 (如阅读困难)或丢失(如低视力)。

DESCRIPTION (adapted from applicant's abstract): Behavioral, functional brain imaging (fMRI), electrophysiological (ERP) and neuropsychological experiments will investigate how letters are perceived. The project is motivated by a framework accounting for specialization for faces and letters in extrastriate cortex by a detailed analysis of the different recognition goals and the information available for the recognition of these categories. The experiments will evaluate the hypothesis that what is "special" about expert letter perception is that regularities in letter style (including orientation, case and font) is used to facilitate letter recognition (access to letter identities). In particular, we will investigate how readers may learn to use the regularity of print to facilitate letter perception at the basic level, how this ability differs from general object recognition strategies and whether it leads to specialization of letter-specific areas in visual cortex. This project has four aims: I) identify behavioral effects that are special to the way experienced readers recognize letters; II) study the basic properties of letter-selective areas in visual cortex with ERP and fMRI; III) use behavioral, fMRI and ERP measurements to investigate the hypothesis that a history of poor reading expertise in dyslexic individuals leads to abnormal specialization of the letter-specific system; IV) test predictions about lesions in areas of the visual cortex specialized for letters in individuals with acquired peripheral dyslexia (pure alexia). This research will investigate how much visual factors alone contribute to specialization for letters. This information is necessary to understand linguistic influences on reading and would extend an emerging framework interpreting category-specific effects in extrastriate cortex in terms of the recruitment through experience of processes best suited for different recognition goals. Understanding what characterizes expert letter perception is also necessary to understand disorders in which this expertise is not acquired (such as dyslexia) or is lost (such as low vision).