Visual word form area

The visual word form area (VWFA) is a functional region of the fusiform gyrus that is hypothesized to be involved in identifying words from lower-level shape images, prior to association with phonology or semantics. Because the alphabet is relatively new in human evolution, it is unlikely that this region developed as a result of selection pressures related to word recognition per se; however, this region may be highly specialized for certain types of shapes that occur naturally in the environment and are therefore likely to surface within written language. However, recent functional imaging experiments have also raised doubts about whether the VWFA is an actual region.