File:Visual word form area2.jpg

English: A. The object cortex (green oval), which is located close by the wordbox (purple oval), helps us recognize objects. For example, it can tell apart different objects that have a similar shape, like an orange, a basketball, or the letter “O.” B. Strings of letters have different meanings based on their order, even though they look similar. For example, “tap” is “pat” if we arrange the letters backwards, or “united” becomes “untied” if we move the letter “t.” On the other hand, we can recognize a basketball hoop when we look at it from the front or when standing underneath it, even though it looks very different in those two cases. C. The object cortex recognizes shapes or objects (like a basketball hoop) no matter from what viewpoint we look at them. The wordbox, on the other hand, can discriminate between the same shapes (in this case letters) that form different words in different arrangements. For example, the object cortex will recognize a “p,” “q,” “b,” and “d” as the same shape (a circle with a straight line attached) while the wordbox will discriminate between the four different letters.