Lin Nan, Yu Xi, Zhao Ying, Zhang Mingxia
Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100101, China.
Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience, Division of Developmental Medicine, Department of Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2016 Feb 22;11(2):e0149583. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149583. eCollection 2016.
This fMRI study aimed to identify the neural mechanisms underlying the recognition of Chinese multi-character words by partialling out the confounding effect of reaction time (RT). For this purpose, a special type of nonword-transposable nonword-was created by reversing the character orders of real words. These nonwords were included in a lexical decision task along with regular (non-transposable) nonwords and real words. Through conjunction analysis on the contrasts of transposable nonwords versus regular nonwords and words versus regular nonwords, the confounding effect of RT was eliminated, and the regions involved in word recognition were reliably identified. The word-frequency effect was also examined in emerged regions to further assess their functional roles in word processing. Results showed significant conjunctional effect and positive word-frequency effect in the bilateral inferior parietal lobules and posterior cingulate cortex, whereas only conjunctional effect was found in the anterior cingulate cortex. The roles of these brain regions in recognition of Chinese multi-character words were discussed.
这项功能磁共振成像（fMRI）研究旨在通过排除反应时间（RT）的混杂效应，来确定中文多字单词识别背后的神经机制。为此，通过颠倒真实单词的字符顺序，创建了一种特殊类型的非单词——可转置非单词。这些非单词与常规（不可转置）非单词和真实单词一起被纳入词汇判断任务中。通过对可转置非单词与常规非单词以及单词与常规非单词的对比进行联合分析，消除了RT的混杂效应，并可靠地识别出了参与单词识别的区域。还在出现的区域中检查了词频效应，以进一步评估它们在单词处理中的功能作用。结果显示，双侧下顶叶小叶和后扣带回皮质存在显著的联合效应和正向词频效应，而在前扣带回皮质中仅发现联合效应。讨论了这些脑区在中文多字单词识别中的作用。
