歧义字段是指具有不同词切分方式的中文字段（如“球拍/卖”和“球/拍卖”）。歧义字段加工是影响中文阅读理解的关键与难点之一，而目前人们对歧义字段加工过程的认知和神经机制还知之甚少。本项目将采用行为实验、眼动跟踪及脑成像等研究手段，系统、深入地研究中文阅读中歧义字段加工的认知和神经机制。通过五个系列实验，我们拟回答如下三个科学问题：第一，词汇、语法和语义水平的信息如何影响及决定歧义字段切分；第二，歧义字段切分的检错与纠错机制；第三，歧义字段切分所依赖的脑网络的空间定位及活动规律。本项目将会对我们理解中文阅读的认知机理起到重要的推动作用，还将为歧义消解研究开辟新的方向，进而从全新的视角为探索句子理解的认知机理做出独特的贡献。同时本项目也将为人工智能领域解决歧义字段切分这个难题提供借鉴。

In Chinese texts, it is very challenging to segment an overlapping ambiguous string. The middle character of an overlapping ambiguous string can constitute words with the characters to both their left and their right. Even so, not too much has been known about how Chinese readers process the spatial overlap ambiguous string. In this project, we plan to study the cognitive and neural mechanism of how Chinese readers process overlapping ambiguous string during Chinese reading using behavioral study, eye tracking and neuroimaging techniques. We will mainly investigate the following questions: 1) how spatial overlap ambiguous strings are processed at lexical processing level, syntactic processing level and semantic processing level? 2) How Chinese readers detect and correct temporary mistakes during processing? and 3) what brain regions are involved during the processing of overlap ambiguous strings. This project will enhance our understanding of the mechanism of Chinese reading, and it will also provide a new angle to study sentence processing. The findings from the current study will provide insights into the studies of artificial intelligence.