November 10th, 2023 –  Laurent Cohen (Département de Neurologie, Hôpital de la Salpêtrière and ICM – Paris) – The reading brain upside down and inside out

The ventral occipitotemporal (VOT) cortex plays a pivotal role in the visual recognition of various types of items, including objects, faces, places, and written words. The role of the left VOT in reading has been recognized since the 19th century from the study of patients with pure alexia. More recently, anatomical and functional brain imaging revealed that this ability rests on a reproducible patch of cortex along the left fusiform gyrus, the Visual Word Form Area or VWFA. I will provide an overview of some recent approaches to the study of this system, in literate or illiterate, typical or atypical, healthy or brain-damaged individuals.

Conference Room R229 – Saint-Germain-des-Prés Campus – 45 rue des Saints-Pères, 75006 Paris – September 29th, 2023 at 11:30 AM