User:IanKloss/Visual word form area

Hyperlexia
Some research suggests that children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) may rely more heavily on visual perception areas—including the VWFA—and less heavily on phonological areas during reading tasks compared to non-ASD children. Greater activation of the VWFA may be particularly significant in children with hyperlexia, or reading ability beyond one's training. Hyperlexia is thought to be associated with ASD, with estimates of prevalence in autistic children ranging from 6 to 20.7%. One study of a hyperlexic child with ASD showed elevated activation compared to controls of the right posterior inferior temporal sulcus, where the right VWFA (R-VWFA) is thought to be located. This region is active during early stages of reading development, while a non-ASD child of the subject's reading level would be expected to make less use of this region in favor of phonological ("letter-to-sound") processes.

Dyslexia
Meta-analysis of studies of children and adults with dyslexia suggests that underactivation of the left occipitotemporal region—particularly the VWFA—may be involved in dyslexics' difficulty with fluid reading. These reading difficulties may also be related to poor connectivity between the VWFA and associated regions in the parietal cortex responsible for visual attention.

(material to be added to the end of "Alternative functions for the cortical area ascribed to the VWFA")
However, there is some evidence that the VWFA is not specialized for reading specifically but instead has a set of specific properties and functions that make it useful for reading—and particularly important for fluid reading—but may also allow it to play roles in other forms of visual processing. VWFA involvement appears to depend partly on the visual complexity of a stimulus, and it appears to process recognizable visual stimuli that are grouped together. This may explain why "letter by letter" reading is still possible even when the VWFA suffers lesions that otherwise interfere with fluid reading ability. This may also address why the VWFA is activated even more strongly by line drawings and Amharic characters than by written words familiar to study participants.