title: Can Cantonese rhymes be used in the assessment of hemispheric dominance for language?
abstract: English vowels had been proposed in previous studies to be used as a simple tool for the brain mapping of language. A proper fMRI study of Cantonese rhymes, each of which being a required and fundamental unit of a Cantonese syllable, remains to be carried out. Using an auditory task with Cantonese rhymes which carry no semantic meaning, we observed a minimal amount of positive BOLD signal at the caudate nucleus when Cantonese rhymes were contrasted with their corresponding filtered sounds. Typical language activating regions of the prefrontal cortex, the medial prefrontal cortex and the lateral temporal cortex on both left and right sides were not activated by Cantonese rhymes. Based on the absence of brain activation at the typical language areas in the contrast of Cantonese rhymes relative to filtered sounds, the auditory task with Cantonese rhymes may not be a robust tool for the individual clinical assessment of hemispheric dominance for language.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Technology and Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. htphoebe@inet.polyu.edu.hk
authors.forename: Suk-Tak
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Sze-Wing
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Wing-Kit
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Kwok-Wing
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Shing-Shun
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.forename: Kenneth K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Kwong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010507:Periodicity; D012660:Semantics; D013061:Speech Acoustics; D013067:Speech Perception; D055815:Young Adult