title: An event-related fNIRS investigation of Japanese word order.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Division of Neuroscience, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University, 1577 Kurimamachiya-cho, Tsu, Mie, 514-8507, Japan.
authors.forename: Yukika
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sugisaki
authors.forename: Noriko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hattori
authors.forename: Yasushi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Inokuchi
authors.forename: Masayuki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Komachi
authors.forename: Yoshihiro
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Nishimura
authors.forename: Mariko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: Motohiro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okada
authors.forename: Yuji
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Okazaki
authors.forename: Waro
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Taki
authors.forename: Tetsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Etsuko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Seiki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ayano
mesh_terms: 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
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins; D010100:Oxygen