Zhao Jingjing, Wang Xiaoyi, Frost Stephen J, Sun Wan, Fang Shin-Yi, Mencl W Einar, Pugh Kenneth R, Shu Hua, Rueckl Jay G
Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA; Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, USA.
State Key Laboratory for Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Cortex. 2014 Apr;53:90-106. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2014.01.003. Epub 2014 Jan 15.
Word reading in alphabetic language involves a cortical system with multiple components whose division of labor depends on the transparency of the writing system. To gain insight about the neural division of labor between phonology and semantics subserving word reading in Chinese, a deep non-alphabetic writing system, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to investigate the effects of phonological and semantic training on the cortical circuitry for oral naming of Chinese characters. In a training study, we examined whether a training task that differentially focused readers' attention on the phonological or semantic properties of a Chinese character changes the patterns of cortical activation that was evoked by that character in a subsequent naming task. Our imaging results corroborate that the cortical regions underlying reading in Chinese largely overlap the left-hemisphere reading system responsible for reading in alphabetic languages, with some cortical regions in the left-hemisphere uniquely recruited for reading in Chinese. However, in contrast to findings from studies of English word naming, we observed considerable overlap in the neural activation patterns associated with phonological and semantic training on naming Chinese characters, which we suggest may reflect a balanced neural division of labor between phonology and semantics in Chinese character reading. The equitable division of labor for Chinese reading might be driven by the special statistical structure of the writing system, which includes equally systematic mappings in the correspondences between written forms and their pronunciations and meanings.
字母语言中的单词阅读涉及一个具有多个组成部分的皮质系统，其分工取决于书写系统的透明度。为了深入了解在中文这种深度非字母书写系统中，服务于单词阅读的语音和语义之间的神经分工，我们使用功能磁共振成像（fMRI）来研究语音和语义训练对汉字口语命名皮质回路的影响。在一项训练研究中，我们考察了一项训练任务，该任务使读者的注意力有差异地集中在汉字的语音或语义属性上，是否会改变该汉字在随后命名任务中所诱发的皮质激活模式。我们的成像结果证实，中文阅读所涉及的皮质区域在很大程度上与负责字母语言阅读的左半球阅读系统重叠，左半球的一些皮质区域专门用于中文阅读。然而，与英语单词命名研究的结果不同，我们观察到与汉字命名的语音和语义训练相关的神经激活模式有相当大的重叠，我们认为这可能反映了汉字阅读中语音和语义之间平衡的神经分工。中文阅读这种公平的分工可能是由书写系统的特殊统计结构驱动的，该结构包括书写形式与其发音和意义之间同样系统的映射。
