An event-related fNIRS investigation of Japanese word order.
Japanese is a free word-order language, and allows both subject-object-verb (SOV) and object-subject-verb (OSV) orders. Our previous study using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging revealed that OSV sentences induce more activation in the left frontal lobe than SOV sentences. The present study develops our previous experiment: (1) by adopting an event-related design, and (2) by using sentences involving the adverb naze 'why', which plays a prominent role in recent linguistic studies. The results of our new experiment indicated that the cerebral activation in O why SV sentences was significantly larger than that in S why OV sentences, in the right anterior prefrontal region, which is consistent with the assumption that O why SV order is derived from S why OV order. We speculate that the activation observed in the anterior prefrontal cortex during the processing of the sentences involving 'why' might be due to the processing of higher-order function in the cerebral cortex.
Nishimura
Yukika
Y
Department of Psychiatry, Division of Neuroscience, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University, 1577 Kurimamachiya-cho, Tsu, Mie, 514-8507, Japan.
Sugisaki
Koji
K
Hattori
Noriko
N
Inokuchi
Yasushi
Y
Komachi
Masayuki
M
Nishimura
Yoshihiro
Y
Ogawa
Mariko
M
Okada
Motohiro
M
Okazaki
Yuji
Y
Taki
Waro
W
Yamamoto
Tetsuro
T
Yoshida
Etsuko
E
Ayano
Seiki
S
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply / Q000502:physiology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007807:Language Tests; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood / Q000378:metabolism; D011930:Reaction Time; D011932:Reading; D019265:Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult
D006454:Hemoglobins; D010100:Oxygen