Paper accepted in Nature Communications

Wang, L., Frisson, S., Pan, Y. And Jensen, O. (accepted) Fast hierarchical processing of orthographic and semantic parafoveal information during natural reading. Nat Commun

We investigated how the brain processes words in the parafovea—just outside the direct line of sight—during reading. Using MEG and eye-tracking, the we found that both orthographic (letter-based) and semantic (meaning-based) information from parafoveal words is processed before the eyes fixate on them. Orthographic processing occurred rapidly (~68 ms) in the visual word form area, while semantic processing followed (~137 ms) in the left inferior frontal gyrus. The extent of this early processing was linked to individual reading speed, suggesting that efficient readers extract rich parafoveal information through a fast, hierarchical brain mechanism.