Preliminary evidence of prolonged timing effects of theta-burst stimulation in the reading system.

Theta-burst stimulation (TBS) is a repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation technique that can be used to upregulate or downregulate different brain regions. However, the timing of its effects and the differing effects of continuous TBS (cTBS) versus intermittent TBS (iTBS) in the reading system have not been explored. This study assessed how stimulation type and post-stimulation timing affected change in performance during a phonological discrimination and sight word recognition task after stimulation of supramarginal gyrus (SMG).

The Impact of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Reading Processes: A Systematic Review.

The current systematic review examines the behavioral effects of TMS on reading. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to targeted nodes of the brain's reading network has been shown to impact reading. Extracted data included (a) study characteristics, (b) methodology, (c) targeted nodes, (d) control paradigm, (e) type of reading task, (f) adverse effects, and (g) main findings.

Left hemisphere specialization for word reading potentially causes, rather than results from, a left lateralized bias for high spatial frequency visual information.

There is considerable evidence showing that efficient visual word recognition relies on high spatial frequency (HSF) visual coding in the left posterior fusiform gyrus. But whether the bias for HSF in the left hemisphere (LH) causally contributes to the LH superiority for word recognition or possibly results from it remains unknown. To assess whether the lateralization for HSF information exists prior to the left lateralization for reading, we used a divided-visual field task to examine the LH bias for orthographic processing and for HSF Gabor patches in young children (mean age 4.