Brain activation patterns resulting from learning letter forms through active self-production and passive observation in young children
Although previous literature suggests that writing practice facilitates neural specialization for letters, it is unclear if this facilitation is driven by the perceptual feedback from the act of writing or the actual execution of the motor act. The present study addresses this issue by measuring the...
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Published in | Frontiers in psychology Vol. 4; p. 567 |
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Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Switzerland
Frontiers Media S.A
2013
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Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Although previous literature suggests that writing practice facilitates neural specialization for letters, it is unclear if this facilitation is driven by the perceptual feedback from the act of writing or the actual execution of the motor act. The present study addresses this issue by measuring the change in BOLD signal in response to hand-printed letters, unlearned cursive letters, and cursive letters that 7-year-old children learned actively, by writing, and passively, by observing an experimenter write. Brain activation was assessed using fMRI while perceiving letters-in both cursive and manuscript forms. Results showed that active training led to increased recruitment of the sensori-motor network associated with letter perception as well as the insula and claustrum, but passive observation did not. This suggests that perceptual networks for newly learned cursive letters are driven by motor execution rather than by perceptual feedback. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Edited by: Marieke Longcamp, Aix-Marseille Univserity and CNRS, France This article was submitted to Cognitive Science, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychology. Reviewed by: Virginia W. Berninger, University of Washington, USA; Olivier Dufor, Ecole Telecom Bretagne, France |
ISSN: | 1664-1078 1664-1078 |
DOI: | 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00567 |