Neuroanatomical correlates of phonological processing of Chinese characters and alphabetic words: A meta‐analysis

Abstract

Abstract:We used the activation likelihood estimation (ALE) method to quantitatively synthesize data from 19 published brain mapping studies of phonological processing in reading, six with Chinese and 13 with alphabetic languages. It demonstrated high concordance of cortical activity across multiple studies in each written language system as well as significant differences of activation likelihood between languages. Four neural systems for the phonological processing of Chinese characters included: (1) a left dorsal lateral frontal system at Brodmann area (BA) 9; (2) the dorsal aspect of left inferior parietal system; (3) a bilateral ventraloccipitotemporal system including portions of fusiform gyrus and middle occipital gyrus; and (4) a left ventral prefrontal system covering the superior aspect of inferior frontal gyrus. For phonological processing of written alphabetic words, cortical areas identified here are consistent with the three neural systems proposed previously in the literature: (1) a ventral prefrontal system involving superior portions of left inferior frontal gyrus; (2) a left dorsal temporoparietal system including mid-superior temporal gyri and the ventral aspect of inferior parietal cortex (supramarginal region); and (3) a left ventral occipitotemporal system. Contributions of each of these systems to phonological processing in reading were discussed, and a covariant learning hypothesis is offered to account for the findings that left middle frontal gyrus is responsible for addressed phonology in Chinese whereas left temporoparietal regions mediate assembled phonology in alphabetic languages. Language form, cognitive process, and learning strategy drive the development of functional neuroanatomy. Hum Brain Mapp 25:83-91, 2005.

Neural bases of asymmetric language switching in second-language learners: An ER-fMRI study

“…Previous studies showed that these regions would be activated in bilingual production tasks and other bilingual processing tasks involving phonological and semantic retrieval (Bleser et al, 2003;Chee et al, 1999Chee et al, , 2001Chee et al, , 2003Klein et al, 1995Klein et al, , 1999Klein et al, , 2006Price et al, 1999;Tan et al, 2005).…”

“…A recent meta-analysis examining phonological processing of written word forms in Chinese and English found that only English elicited activation in left temporoparietal region (including middle temporal gyrus, supramarginal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule) and it was significantly greater than that elicited by Chinese. It was suggested that these areas are involved in the mapping between letters (graphemes) and sounds (phonemes) in English (Tan et al, 2005).…”

Neural correlates of numbers and mathematical terms

“…According to the differential strategies explanation, numerical processing may involve fewer strategies than the word materials. Alternatively, this pattern of laterality reflects the classic left laterality for language processing and right laterality for numbers and spatial processing, particularly in the prefrontal cortex (Casasanto, 2003;Dehaene et al, 1993;Kuo et al, 2001Kuo et al, , 2004Tan et al, 2000Tan et al, , 2005Zorzi et al, 2002).…”

Pseudohomophone effects provide evidence of early lexico‐phonological processing in visual word recognition

“…The contrast of pseudohomophones and spelling controls revealed the largest differences in a left temporo-parietal area including the supramarginal gyrus (SMG, BA40) and in a right fronto-temporal area at the border of the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG, BA44,45), the insula (BA13), the supplementary motor area (SMA, BA6) and the superior temporal gyrus (STG, BA22). In fact, previous imaging studies have proposed that the SMG, the pars triangularis and the SMA are part of Baddeley's phonological loop (Baddeley, 1986) linking IFG activity to articulatory rehearsal and SMG activity to phonological storage (Demonet et al, 1994;Gold and Buckner, 2002;Paulesu et al, 1993;Tan et al, 2005).…”