We then showed that microstructural changes in these connections correlated with improvements in reading scores over the first year of instruction but not 1 year later in a subsample of eight children (age: 8.4 ± 0.3 years). The most specific connections of the VWFA were to the dorsal posterior parietal cortex. We first showed that the regions for each visual category harbor their own specific connectivity, all of which precede reading instruction and remain stable throughout development.

With diffusion MRI and tractography, we reconstructed the connections of these regions at two time points (mean age ± standard deviation: 6.2 ± 0.3, 7.2 ± 0.4 years). Category-specific regions for words, houses, faces, and tools were identified in the left vOTC of each subject with functional MRI. Here, we explored the structural connectivity of the emerging VWFA in terms of its specificity relative to other ventral visual regions and its stability throughout the process of reading instruction in ten children studied longitudinally over 2 years. Its reproducible location across scripts suggests important anatomical constraints, such as specific patterns of connectivity, notably to spoken language areas.

Shortly after reading instruction, a region in the ventral occipital temporal cortex (vOTC) of the left hemisphere, the Visual Word Form Area (VWFA), becomes specialized for written words.

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