Connectivity precedes function in the development of the visual word form area

• Published in: Nature neuroscience Vol. 19; no. 9; pp. 1250 - 1255
• Main Authors: Saygin, Zeynep M, Osher, David E, Norton, Elizabeth S, Youssoufian, Deanna A, Beach, Sara D, Feather, Jenelle, Gaab, Nadine, Gabrieli, John D E, Kanwisher, Nancy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.09.2016; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 59/36; 59/57; 631/378/2613; 631/378/2649; 631/378/3920; Age; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Auditory cortex; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Techniques; Biomedicine; Brain Mapping; Brain research; Child; Children & youth; Female; Functional Laterality - physiology; Humans; Hypotheses; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted - methods; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Male; Neural Pathways - physiology; Neurobiology; Neuroimaging; Neurosciences; Physiological aspects; Reading; Task Performance and Analysis; Temporal Lobe - physiology; Visual Perception; New York; United States > US; Massachusetts
• ISSN: 1097-6256; 1546-1726
• DOI: 10.1038/nn.4354

Before children can read, their brains have yet to develop selective responses to words. This study demonstrates that a child's connectivity pattern at age 5 can predict where their own word-selective cortex will later develop. This suggests that connectivity lays the groundwork for later functional development of cortex. What determines the cortical location at which a given functionally specific region will arise in development? We tested the hypothesis that functionally specific regions develop in their characteristic locations because of pre-existing differences in the extrinsic connectivity of that region to the rest of the brain. We exploited the visual word form area (VWFA) as a test case, scanning children with diffusion and functional imaging at age 5, before they learned to read, and at age 8, after they learned to read. We found the VWFA developed functionally in this interval and that its location in a particular child at age 8 could be predicted from that child's connectivity fingerprints (but not functional responses) at age 5. These results suggest that early connectivity instructs the functional development of the VWFA, possibly reflecting a general mechanism of cortical development.