title: Artificial language training reveals the neural substrates underlying addressed and assembled phonologies.
abstract: Although behavioral and neuropsychological studies have suggested two distinct routes of phonological access, their neural substrates have not been clearly elucidated. Here, we designed an artificial language (based on Korean Hangul) that can be read either through addressed (i.e., whole word mapping) or assembled (i.e., grapheme-to-phoneme mapping) phonology. Two matched groups of native English-speaking participants were trained in one of the two conditions, one hour per day for eight days. Behavioral results showed that both groups correctly named more than 90% of the trained words after training. At the neural level, we found a clear dissociation of the neural pathways for addressed and assembled phonologies: There was greater involvement of the anterior cingulate cortex, posterior cingulate cortex, right orbital frontal cortex, angular gyrus and middle temporal gyrus for addressed phonology, but stronger activation in the left precentral gyrus/inferior frontal gyrus and supramarginal gyrus for assembled phonology. Furthermore, we found evidence supporting the strategy-shift hypothesis, which postulates that, with practice, reading strategy shifts from assembled to addressed phonology. Specifically, compared to untrained words, trained words in the assembled phonology group showed stronger activation in the addressed phonology network and less activation in the assembled phonology network. Our results provide clear brain-imaging evidence for the dual-route models of reading.
authors.affiliation: Center for Studies of Psychological Application and School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, China; Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Leilei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mei
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Gui
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Brain Imaging and Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States of America.
authors.forename: Zhong-Lin
authors.initials: ZL
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Qinghua
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Mingxia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Miao
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California Irvine, Irvine, California, United States of America.
authors.forename: Chuansheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Qi
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Dong
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D011932:Reading; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*