While it is still unclear how flexibly these distributed cortical networks contribute to semantic processing across different task contexts (Mahon and Caramazza, 2008, Pulvermueller, 2013 and Willems and Casasanto, 2011), evidence suggests convincingly that sensorimotor activation in response to printed words reflects semantic processing. In UK primary schools, children learn to read simple words during their first year when they

are 4–5 years old. Reading fluency continues to develop substantially after that, with improvements in reading speed and accuracy extending until around the 15th year of life (Wechlser, 2001). Age-related changes in reading skills are accompanied by focalisation and left-lateralisation of word shape selective occipito-temporal areas (Brown et al., 2005, Schlaggar and McCandliss, 2007 and Schlaggar et al., 2002) and decreasing activation in posterior temporal areas associated with cross-modal orthographic and VX-765 phonological processing (Church et al., 2008 and Pugh et al., 2001).

While substantial research has charted how structural and functional changes in these language-related areas contribute to reading improvement during development, the role of cortical sensorimotor AZD8055 cell line representations in this process has not yet been explored. It is therefore unclear when printed words start engaging the same brain areas as their pictorial counterparts as children learn to decode meaning from word forms. Understanding this process can provide important insight into how and under which circumstances child readers access the sensorimotor meaning of written words, and provide a benchmark for investigating word comprehension in children

with reading difficulties. This research can also inform theories on how distributed semantic sensorimotor networks contribute to the printed word-learning process. Only a few studies have investigated distributed semantic networks in the developing sensorimotor cortex, but initial evidence suggests that these might already be present before Baricitinib children learn to read. For instance, by 6–7 years of age, passive viewing of tool pictures without the overt plan to act, engages grasp-related areas of the cortex whilst passive viewing of animal pictures does not (Dekker, Mareschal, Sereno, & Johnson, 2011). Similarly, by 4 years of age, listening to actions words (verbs) activates motor areas in the brain, but listening to non-action words (nouns) does not (James & Maouene, 2009). Which role might such already-established cortical sensorimotor representations play during reading acquisition? It is possible that sensorimotor networks become involved early during reading training, for example because they may help bootstrap the formation of mappings between word shape and word meaning (Nation, 2008). Or, underdeveloped spelling/sound connections might allow for a greater influence of semantic information on slow word-recognition processes (Plaut & Booth, 2000).