Testing for Dual Brain Processing Routes in Reading: A Direct Contrast of Chinese Character and Pinyin Reading Using fMRI

Abstract

Chinese offers a unique tool for testing the effects of word form on language processing during reading. The processes of letter-mediated grapheme-to-phoneme translation and phonemic assembly (assembled phonology) critical for reading and spelling in any alphabetic orthography are largely absent when reading nonalphabetic Chinese characters. In contrast, script-to-sound translation based on the script as a whole (addressed phonology) is absent when reading the Chinese alphabetic sound symbols known as pinyin, for which the script-to-sound translation is based exclusively on assembled phonology. The present study aims to contrast patterns of brain activity associated with the different cognitive mechanisms needed for reading the two scripts. fMRI was used with a block design involving a phonological and lexical task in which subjects were asked to decide whether visually presented, paired Chinese characters or pinyin "sounded like" a word. Results demonstrate that reading Chinese characters and pinyin activate a common brain network including the inferior frontal, middle, and inferior temporal gyri, the inferior and superior parietal lobules, and the extrastriate areas. However, some regions show relatively greater activation for either pinyin or Chinese reading. Reading pinyin led to a greater activation in the inferior parietal cortex bilaterally, the precuneus, and the anterior middle temporal gyrus. In contrast, activation in the left fusiform gyrus, the bilateral cuneus, the posterior middle temporal, the right inferior frontal gyrus, and the bilateral superior frontal gyrus were greater for nonalphabetic Chinese reading. We conclude that both alphabetic and nonalphabetic scripts activate a common brain network for reading. Overall, there are no differences in terms of hemispheric specialization between alphabetic and nonalphabetic scripts. However, differences in language surface form appear to determine relative activation in other regions. Some of these regions (e.g., the inferior parietal cortex for pinyin and fusiform gyrus for Chinese characters) are candidate regions for specialized processes associated with reading via predominantly assembled (pinyin) or addressed (Chinese character) procedures.

Mapping of verbal working memory in nonfluent Chinese–English bilinguals with functional MRI

“…Putting together our findings with the evidence of neural contrast between subjects' two languages during reading (e.g., Chen et al, 2002;Liu and Perfetti, 2003), we may speculate that lexical information is temporarily stored and manipulated in the same working memory system, but the processing (mainly the visual identification, lexical -semantic, and lexical -phonological processing) of the two languages may use different neural (and/or cognitive) mechanisms due to factors such as the design principle of different language systems. We hasten to add, however, the usefulness of this speculation is limited by the low spatial and temporal resolution of fMRI method that may have failed to detect subtle differences in the cognitive and neural operations of working memory for the two languages.…”

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

“…Among these studies, six used an explicit, phonology-related decision task [Chen et al, 2002;Kuo et al, 2004;Siok et al, 2003Siok et al, , 2004Tan et al, 2001aTan et al, , 2003, two used reading aloud [He et al, 2003;Tan et al, 2001b], and one used silent reading [Kuo et al, 2001]. We decided to enter the data of the six studies employing an explicit phonological judgment task into the meta-analysis (Table I), and excluded the three studies with the silent-reading or reading-aloud paradigm, because we believed that reading aloud is relevant not only to phonological processes in visual character identification, but also to auditory and (passive) language production processes.…”

“…In the last several years, neuroimaging investigations with Chinese characters have also been conducted, often with a focus on functional anatomy of phonological processing in reading [Chen et al, 2002;He et al, 2003;Kuo et al, 2004;Siok et al, 2003Siok et al, , 2004Tan et al, 2001aTan et al, , 2003. Some of these studies have implicated significant differences in neural bases for reading in Chinese and English.…”

Writing affects the brain network of reading in Chinese: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

“…The reading network for Chinese includes both regions shared with alphabetic reading and regions distinct neural mechanisms for reading across different writing systems [Bolger et al, 2005;Chen et al, 2002;Kuo et al, 2004;Paulesu et al, 2000;Tan et al, 2005a]. Among the common neural mechanisms, the left temporo-occipital cortex and left inferior parietal lobule (IPL) are involved in both languages for orthographic analysis and conversion between orthography and phonology/semantics, respectively [Bolger et al, 2005;Booth et al, 2006;Tan et al, 2003].…”