According to the proposed hypothesis, graphic characters trigger the subcortical visual route. The reaction discussed is very weak. Yet, its very existence has an unusual importance: characters and occluded venomous snakeskin patterns reveal themselves as conflatable. Furthermore, following tractogra - phic research, a functional segregation of the subcortical pathway is to be presupposed.
The outc omes of lecture will gradually appear probabilistically much more peaceful than encountering a venomous snake, though, and thus a continuous lessening of the reaction is expectable. Here, on one hand, it is relevant that the subcortical visual pathway goes to the amygdala. The reactions we describe tap into goal-oriented processes, and they will do that un fettered.
On the other hand, in the case of characters, since the beginning, fear has been converted into appetition to a great degree. This process should be fostered in the presence of light. In this way, luminosity might become a conditioned stimulus for attraction.
In this case, a Pavlovian addiction for light will foster, yet alsoโfrom the point of view of reward fee lingโcounterbalance the lessening of the stimulation elicited by characters. The addiction we refer to is one towards light accompanied by graphic signs.
Yet, as opposed to the case of the luminous medium, the attention captured by the later ones taken for themselves is continuously reduced. Completely new in fMRI studies on reading in general was here the involvement of two areas of subcortical origin: the superior colliculus right lateralization , and the pulvinar nuclei bilaterally [1]. Not intending to belittle a probable great importance pertaining to it, it seemed to us unnecessary to explore the issue of the lateralization.
