Magnetoencephalography of language: new approaches to understanding the cortical organization of Chinese processing
Magnetoencephalography of language: new approaches to understanding the cortical organization of Chinese processing
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DOI：
10.1179/174313209x459219
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发表时间：
2010-07
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Yumei Zhang;Ning Zhang;Zaizhu Han;Yilong Wang;Chunxue Wang;Hongyan Chen;Yongjun Wang;Xinghu Zhang
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Yumei Zhang;Ning Zhang;Zaizhu Han;Yilong Wang;Chunxue Wang;Hongyan Chen;Yongjun Wang;Xinghu Zhang
中文摘要目的：汉语是一种意符语言。它的许多心理语言学特征不同于字母语言。这些差异可能意味着汉语处理的神经活动模式与字母语言处理不同。本研究的目的是利用脑磁图（MEG）研究健康汉语者处理汉语信息的神经语言中枢。总的来说，我们的目标是阐明跨不同语言脚本的处理的语言特定和语言一般的特点。方法：10名健康汉语受试者被要求在脑磁图扫描仪上默读真汉字和看假汉字。通过将MEG结果与磁共振成像（MRI）图像重叠来定位功能语言区。结果：当受试者阅读汉字时，在两半球均观察到明显的迟发磁反应波。极化的反应波形被发现是在左半球比右半球更大。Broca区位于额下回或额中回的后部。韦尼克区位于颞中回、颞上级回和缘上回。此外，Wernicke区比Broca区更早被激活。结论：汉语本族语者阅读汉字时，脑反应偏向左半球。总体而言，本研究中阅读汉语激活的脑功能区与以往研究中发现的字母语言的经典语言中心相对应，但在具体的激活模式上也发现了一些差异。
Abstract Objective: Chinese is a logographic language. Many of its psycholinguistic characteristics differ from those of alphabetic languages. These differences might be expected to entail a different pattern of neural activity underpinning Chinese language processing compared to the processing of alphabetic languages. The aim of the current study was to investigate neural language centers for processing Chinese language information in healthy Chinese speakers using magnetoencephalography (MEG). Overall, we aimed to elucidate language-specific and language-general characteristics of processing across different language scripts. Methods: Ten healthy Chinese-speaking subjects were asked to silently read genuine Chinese characters and view pseudo-characters in a MEG scanner. The functional language areas were located by overlapping the MEG results over magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images. Results: Distinctive late magnetic response waves were observed in both hemispheres while the subjects were reading genuine Chinese characters. The polarization of the response waveforms was found to be greater in the left than the right hemisphere. Broca's area was found to be located at the back of gyrus frontalis inferior or gyrus frontalis medius. Wernicke's area was located at gyrus temporalis medius, gyrus temporalis superior and gyrus supramariginalis. In addition, Wernicke's area was activated earlier than Broca's area. Conclusion: Native Chinese speakers reading Chinese characters showed neural responses that were lateralized to the left hemisphere. Overall, the functional brain areas activated by reading Chinese in this study corresponded to classical language centers found for alphabetic languages in previous studies, but some differences were also found in the specific patterns of activation.