All connectivity analyses were computed over the span of the entire 6(a) Theta-band PLVs (significant functional connectivity, black lines – see Methods) among all ROIs, evolving over the course of viewing a word. (b) Theta-band PLVs relative to vOT. These depictions of connectivity are derived from (a), isolated to bring focus to vOT’s widespread involvement in the reading network. (c) Theta-band NBTE (causal connectivity, black arrows mean that NBTE was significantly different from 0 in both 50-ms bins in 100-ms interval – see Methods) relative to vOT, showing a comparable pattern of network engagement to PLVs (b). This also highlights some of the uni- and bi-directional relationships that exist in the time-course of word reading. (d) Gamma PLVs show similarities to their theta counterparts, albeit with sparser connectivity overall. This is further highlighted when vOT gamma interactions are isolated in (e), illustrating their confinement to posterior cortices. (f) Gamma-band NBTE (black arrows) relative to vOT, showing a comparable, and perhaps even more robust, pattern of network engagement relative to PLVs (e).