Neural Correlates of Orthographic Access in Mandarin Chinese Writing: An fMRI Study of the Word-Frequency Effect

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

Yang Yang¹  Ze-Long Meng²  Hong-Yan Bi²  Li Qin²  Yu-Fei Liu²  Jun Zhang⁵ 

[1] Center for Language and Brain, Shenzhen Institute of Neuroscience, Shenzhen, China;Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;Jiangxi Institute of Education Sciences, Nanchang, China;Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Center for Brain Science and Learning Difficulties, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;School-family Partnership Research Center, Graduate School of Education, Peking University, Beijing, China;

关键词: Chinese writing;    word-frequency effect;    orthographic access;    brain activation;    functional connectivity;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00288

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Writing is an essential tool for human communication and involves multiple linguistic, cognitive, and motor processes. Chinese, a logographic writing system, differs remarkably from the writing systems of alphabetic languages. The neural substrates of Chinese writing are largely unknown. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in a copying task, this study probed the neural underpinnings of orthographic access during Mandarin Chinese writing by employing the word-frequency effect. The results showed that writing low-frequency characters evoked greater activation in the bilateral superior/middle/inferior frontal gyrus, superior/inferior parietal lobule, and fusiform gyrus than writing high-frequency characters. Moreover, psychophysiological interaction (PPI) analysis demonstrated that the word-frequency effect modulated functional connectivity within the frontal-occipital networks and the parietal-occipital networks. Together, these findings illustrate the neural correlates of orthographic access for Mandarin Chinese writing, shedding new light on the cognitive architecture of writing across various writing systems.

【 授权许可】

Unknown