Abstract
Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to identify the neural correlates of Chinese character and word reading. The Chinese stimuli were presented visually, one at a time. Subjects covertly generated a word that was semantically related to each stimulus. Three sorts of Chinese items were used: single characters having precise meanings, single characters having vague meanings, and two-character Chinese words. The results indicated that reading Chinese is characterized by extensive activity of the neural systems, with strong left lateralization of frontal (BAs 9 and 47) and temporal (BA 37) cortices and right lateralization of visual systems (BAs 17-19), parietal lobe (BA 3), and cerebellum. The location of peak activation in the left frontal regions coincided nearly completely both for vague- and precise- meaning characters as well as for two-character words, without dissociation in laterality patterns. In addition, left frontal activations were modulated by the ease of semantic retrieval. The present results constitute a challenge to the deeply ingrained belief that activations in reading single characters are right lateralized, whereas activations in reading two-character words are left lateralized. (C) 2000 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 16-27 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Human Brain Mapping |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 05 2000 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Chinese reading
- FMRI
- Hemispheric dominance
- Language
- Lateralization
- MRI
- Neuroimaging
- Reading
- Semantic vagueness
- Word recognition