An fMRI study of visual hemifield integration and cerebral lateralization.

The human brain integrates hemifield-split visual information via interhemispheric transfer. The degree to which neural circuits involved in this process behave differently during word recognition as compared to object recognition is not known. Evidence from neuroimaging (fMRI) suggests that interhemispheric transfer during word viewing converges in the left hemisphere, in two distinct brain areas, an "occipital word form area" (OWFA) and a more anterior occipitotemporal "visual word form area" (VWFA).