fMRI and fNIRS studies on word and sentence processing by English learners

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Using fMRI and fNIRS, we explored the following two points, focusing on the distinction between word (lexical) processing and sentence (syntactic) processing; (1) Which regions are involved in the Case particle processing in Japanese? By comparing activation in "a concrete noun + a Case particle (-ga/-o)" and "a concrete noun without any Case particle," we found selective activation for Case particle processing in Japanese: the left lateral premotor cortex (LPMC). (2) Which regions are involved in the following two types of word formations in English: simplex event nouns and complex event nouns (with -ing)? The former words are listed in the lexicon, but the latter are not and are generated by the rules (Ito and Sugioka 2002). We compared the lexical processing with the lexico-syntactic processing in the word formation. The data analysis is now ongoing, although we need additional data for getting more accurate results.