Brain activation in the processing of Chinese characters and words: a functional MRI study.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to identify the neural correlates of Chinese character and word reading. The Chinese stimuli were presented visually, one at a time. Subjects covertly generated a word that was semantically related to each stimulus. Three sorts of Chinese items were used: single characters having precise meanings, single characters having vague meanings, and two-character Chinese words. The results indicated that reading Chinese is characterized by extensive activity of the neural systems, with strong left lateralization of frontal (BAs 9 and 47) and temporal (BA 37) cortices and right lateralization of visual systems (BAs 17-19), parietal lobe (BA 3), and cerebellum. The location of peak activation in the left frontal regions coincided nearly completely both for vague- and precise-meaning characters as well as for two-character words, without dissociation in laterality patterns. In addition, left frontal activations were modulated by the ease of semantic retrieval. The present results constitute a challenge to the deeply ingrained belief that activations in reading single characters are right lateralized, whereas activations in reading two-character words are left lateralized.
Tan
L H
LH
Cognitive Science Program, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. tanlh@hkucc.hku.hk
Spinks
J A
JA
Gao
J H
JH
Liu
H L
HL
Perfetti
C A
CA
Xiong
J
J
Stofer
K A
KA
Pu
Y
Y
Liu
Y
Y
Fox
P T
PT
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006236:Handwriting; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011932:Reading; D014705:Verbal Behavior / Q000502:physiology*