Fig. 3: Hierarchical parafoveal processing and its relationship with reading speed.

a Neuronal evidence for fast orthographic parafoveal processing. The time series of representational similarity (Pearson R-values) for orthographic within pairs (blue line) and between pairs (black line). The orthographic within pairs showed significantly higher representational similarity values than the between pairs during the 68–186 ms interval (indicated by the light blue shading) after fixation onset on pre-target words (p < 0.001; two-sided cluster permutation test). b Neuronal evidence for fast semantic parafoveal processing. The time series of representational similarity (Pearson R-values) for semantic within pairs (red line) and between pairs (black line). In the 137–247 ms interval after the fixation onset on pre-target words (indicated by the light red shading), the semantic within-pair target words showed significantly higher representational similarity values than the between pairs (p < 0.001; two-sided cluster permutation test). c Relationship between the orthographic parafoveal effects and individual reading speed. Orthographic parafoveal effects were quantified by the mean difference in representational similarity values (∆R) between orthographic within pairs and between pairs. This was done within the time interval, revealing significant differences in the RSA analysis (68–186 ms after fixation onset on the pre-target words). The reading speed of each participant was quantified as the number of words read per second. Each dot represents one participant. The Spearman correlation revealed a positive correlation between the neuronal orthographic parafoveal effect and reading speed (R = 0.42, p = 0.011). d A Spearman correlation demonstrated that the neuronal semantic parafoveal effect positively correlated with individual reading speed (R = 0.34, p = 0.044). Source data are provided as a Source Data file.