Language lateralization of Chinese-English bilingual patients with temporal lobe epilepsy: a functional MRI study.
Functional MRI was used to examine language lateralization of Chinese characters and English words associated with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) in Chinese-English bilinguals with left or right TLE. The results suggest that the neural basis of processing Chinese and English seems to be different, as normal controls demonstrated left hemispheric lateralization in reading English words but bi-hemispheric lateralization in reading Chinese characters. This difference in the neural bases of Chinese and English processing was found to affect the patterns in change-of-language processing associated with TLE. That is, whereas left-TLE patients were more likely than right-TLE patients to demonstrate a bi-hemispheric language involvement in reading English, both left- and right-TLE patients demonstrated primarily bilateral hemispheric involvement for reading Chinese characters.
Cheung
Mei-chun
MC
Department of Psychology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
Chan
Agnes S
AS
Chan
Yu-leung
YL
Lam
Joseph M K
JM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D004493:Education; D004569:Electroencephalography; D004833:Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe / Q000523:psychology*; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012727:Sex Characteristics