TASK- AND SKILL-DEPENDENT MODULATION OF ORTHOGRAPHIC–PHONOLOGICAL CONNECTIVITY

Fluent reading and spelling rely on coordinated activity between multiple regions, including the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOT) and the temporoparietal cortex (TPC), supporting orthographic and phonological processing, respectively. While prior studies have focused on skill-related effects, less is known about variability in their functional connectivity. We examined task- and skill-dependent modulation of VOT-TPC connectivity in children (N = 122; mean age = 13 years). During fMRI, participants completed a word-reading task involving identical (e.g., cat–cat) or different (e.g., cat–dog) word pairs, with neural adaptation expected for identical pairs. Standardized measures of spelling and word and pseudoword reading were collected outside the scanner.In the neural adaptation condition, word-reading skill modulated stronger connectivity between VOT and the left occipital pole than TPC. This pattern may reflect more efficient visual input to ventral orthographic regions during repeated word processing in skilled readers. Spelling and pseudoword reading were associated with stronger VOT-relative-to-TPC connectivity with bilateral lateral occipital cortex, consistent with enhanced visual-form processing supporting automatized reading. In the non-adaptation condition, TPC showed stronger connectivity than VOT with bilateral orbital frontal cortex, modulated by spelling and pseudoword reading. Rather than reflecting phonological processing, this pattern likely indexes greater engagement of domain-general processes during phonologically demanding word comparisons. These findings indicate that interactions between orthographic and phonological systems are flexibly reweighted by task demands and literacy skill. Skill-dependent connectivity patterns preferentially engaged ventral, automatized pathways during repeated word processing, whereas non-repetitive word comparisons relied more strongly on dorsal system interactions with frontal control regions.