The left occipitotemporal system in reading: Disruption of focal fMRI connectivity to left inferior frontal and inferior parietal language areas in children with dyslexia

► Mainly the VWFA was functionally connected with typical left frontal and parietal language areas in control children, pointing to a focal origin of connectivity from the VWF-System. ► Children with dyslexia showed a significant disruption of functional connectivity between the VWFA and left inferior frontal and left inferior parietal language areas. ► A functional disconnection of the left occipitotemporal system in children with dyslexia is limited to the small VWFA region crucial for automatic visual word processing ► This functional disconnection may be linked to dyslexics' deficits in phonological processing since connectivity was correlated with phonological performance in the control group but not in the children with dyslexia. ► This functional disconnection emerges early during reading acquisition in children with dyslexia, along with deficits in orthographic and phonological processing of visual word forms.