**3. The pictures of language**

As mentioned, language can also be visual (as well as gestural), even if this is not originally the "natural" modality for human language. The human brain exhibits a high degree of flexibility and adaptability, yielding high levels of efficacy in tasks to which it is most probably not genetically prepared; reading is an outstanding example in this regard. For a long time, the place in the brain for the "visual word-from area" has been the target of strong debates, even its existence has been put into doubt (Price et al., 2003). The angular gyrus was originally proposed as playing this role by the very first (historical) neurolinguistic models, and indeed it has appeared as such occasionally in recent functional MRI (fMRI) studies (e.g., Bookheimer et al., 1995). However, the fact that this activation is not consistent, while this region seems better characterized as semantic, has encouraged researchers to look elsewhere. A number of studies locate this functional region into Wernicke's area. But this activation is common to both visual and auditory words (Price et al., 2003) and, indeed, the most plausible functional characterization of Wernicke's area as auditory associative is difficult to conform to a visual word-form area. Some portions of the occipito-temporal cortex appear as better candidates for this function. Specifically, the most outstanding in this regard is located within the fusiform gyrus and surrounding areas -such as the lingual gyrus- in the basal temporal cortex (Dehaene et al., 2002). Interestingly, these areas would be genetically prepared for the processing of faces and objects, these functions emerging as a result of natural selection. However, by virtue of education, a portion of these regions could turn into specifically devoted to the processing of letters and visual wordforms (Dehaene, 2009).
