Brain activation in the processing of Chinese characters and words: A functional MRI study

Li Hai Tan*, John A. Spinks, Jia Hong Gao, Ho Ling Liu, Charles A. Perfetti, Jinhu Xiong, Kathryn A. Stofer, Yonglin Pu, Yijun Liu, Peter T. Fox

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

264 Scopus citations

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 languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)16-27
Number of pages12
JournalHuman Brain Mapping
Volume10
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 05 2000
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Chinese reading
  • FMRI
  • Hemispheric dominance
  • Language
  • Lateralization
  • MRI
  • Neuroimaging
  • Reading
  • Semantic vagueness
  • Word recognition

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