Word Processing

This fMRI study contrasted case-deviant and letter-deviant forms with familiar forms of the same
phonological words (e.g., TaXi and Taksi vs. Taxi) and found, that both types of deviance led to
increased activation in a left occipitotemporal region corresponding to the Visual Word Form
Area. Case-deviant items, in addition, led to increased activation in a right occipitotemporal region
and in a left occipital and a left posterior occipitotemporal region, possibly reflecting the increased
demands on letter form coding. For letter-deviant items, in addition to the increased left
occipitotemporal activation, a main finding was increased activation primarily in extended left
frontal regions, possibly reflecting sublexically mediated access to word phonology. These
findings are consistent with general features of cognitive dual-route models of visual word
processing. Furthermore, they add support to the main feature of Dehaene et al.’s (2005) neural
model of early stages of visual word processing . However, the increased activation found for
case-deviant items in the VWFA cannot be immediately reconciled with the assumption of
completely abstract case-independent orthographic word codes in the VWFA.

Use of computers by children has increased rapidly, however few studies have addressed factors which may reduce musculoskeletal stress during computer use by children. This study quantified the postural and muscle activity effects of providing forearm support when children used computers. Twelve male and 12 female children (10–12 years) who regularly used computers were recruited. Activities were completed using a