Hsiao Janet Hui-wen, Shillcock Richard, Lee Chia-ying
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, University of California, San Diego, 9500 Gillman Drive #0404, La Jolla, CA 92093-0404, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2007 Mar 25;45(6):1280-92. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2006.10.001. Epub 2006 Nov 13.
Recent research on foveal structure and reading suggests that the two halves of a centrally fixated word seem to be initially projected to, and processed in, different hemispheres. In the current study, we utilize two contrasting structures in Chinese orthography, "SP" (the semantic radical on the left and the phonetic radical on the right) and "PS" characters (the opposite structure), to examine foveal splitting effects in event-related potential (ERP) recordings. We showed that when participants silently named centrally presented characters, there was a significant interaction between character type and hemisphere in N1 amplitude: SP characters elicited larger N1 compared with PS characters in the left hemisphere, whereas the right hemisphere had the opposite pattern. This effect is consistent with the split fovea claim, suggesting that the two halves of a character may be initially projected to and processed in different hemispheres. There was no such interaction observed in an earlier component P1. Also, there was an interaction between character type and sex of the reader in N350 amplitude. This result is consistent with Hsiao and Shillcock's [Hsiao, J. H., & Shillcock, R. (2005b). Foveal splitting causes differential processing of Chinese orthography in the male and female brain. Cognitive Brain Research, 25, 531-536] behavioural study, which showed a similar interaction in naming response time. They argued that this effect was due to a more left-lateralized network for phonological processing in the male brain compared with the female brain. The results hence showed that foveal splitting effects in visual word recognition were observed in N1 the earliest, and could extend far enough to interact with the sex of the reader as revealed in N350.
近期关于中央凹结构与阅读的研究表明，中央固定注视单词的两半部分似乎最初投射到不同半球并在其中进行加工。在本研究中，我们利用汉字拼写中的两种对比结构，即“形-声”（左边是语义部首，右边是语音部首）和“声-形”字（相反结构），来研究事件相关电位（ERP）记录中的中央凹分裂效应。我们发现，当参与者默读中央呈现的汉字时，N1波幅在汉字类型和半球之间存在显著交互作用：在左半球，“形-声”字引发的N1波幅比“声-形”字更大，而右半球则呈现相反模式。这一效应与中央凹分裂观点一致，表明汉字的两半部分可能最初投射到不同半球并在其中进行加工。在早期成分P1中未观察到这种交互作用。此外，在N350波幅上，汉字类型和读者性别之间存在交互作用。这一结果与萧和希尔科克[Hsiao, J. H., & Shillcock, R. (2005b). Foveal splitting causes differential processing of Chinese orthography in the male and female brain. Cognitive Brain Research, 25, 531 - 536]的行为学研究一致，该研究在命名反应时间上显示出类似的交互作用。他们认为，这种效应是由于男性大脑中语音加工网络比女性大脑更偏向左侧化。因此，结果表明，视觉单词识别中的中央凹分裂效应最早在N1中被观察到，并且可以延伸到与读者性别相互作用，如在N350中所揭示的那样。
