TY - JOUR
T1 - CaSe MiXiNg recruits visual attention: PET evidence
AU - Mayall, Katherine
AU - Humphreys, Glyn
AU - Olson, Andrew
AU - Mechelli, A
AU - Price, CJ
PY - 2001/1/1
Y1 - 2001/1/1
N2 - The early stages of visual word recognition were investigated by scanning participants using PET as them took part in implicit and explicit reading tasks with visually disrupted stimuli. CaSe MiXiNg has been shown in behavioral Studies to increase reaction times (RTs) in naming and other word recognition tasks. In this study. we found that during both an implicit (feature detection) task and an explicit word-naming task, mixed-case words compared to same-case words produced increased activation in an area of the right parietal cortex previously associated with visual attention. No effect of case was found in this area for pseudowords or consonant strings. Further. lowering the contrast of the stimuli slowed RTs as much as case mixing, but did not lead to the same increase in right parietal activation. No significant effect of case mixing was observed in left-hemisphere language areas. The results suggest that reading mixed-case words requires increased attentional processing. However, later word recognition processes may be relatively unaffected by the disruption in presentation.
AB - The early stages of visual word recognition were investigated by scanning participants using PET as them took part in implicit and explicit reading tasks with visually disrupted stimuli. CaSe MiXiNg has been shown in behavioral Studies to increase reaction times (RTs) in naming and other word recognition tasks. In this study. we found that during both an implicit (feature detection) task and an explicit word-naming task, mixed-case words compared to same-case words produced increased activation in an area of the right parietal cortex previously associated with visual attention. No effect of case was found in this area for pseudowords or consonant strings. Further. lowering the contrast of the stimuli slowed RTs as much as case mixing, but did not lead to the same increase in right parietal activation. No significant effect of case mixing was observed in left-hemisphere language areas. The results suggest that reading mixed-case words requires increased attentional processing. However, later word recognition processes may be relatively unaffected by the disruption in presentation.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0035880798&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1162/08989290152541494
DO - 10.1162/08989290152541494
M3 - Article
C2 - 11564327
SN - 0898-929X
VL - 13
SP - 844
EP - 853
JO - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
ER -