Skip to main content

Overlap and dissociation of semantic processing of Chinese characters, English words, and pictures: Evidence from fMRI

Chee, Michael W. L., Weekes, Brendan S., Lee, Kok Ming, Soon, Chun Siong, Schreiber, Axel, Hoon, Jia Jia, Chee, Marilyn (2000) Overlap and dissociation of semantic processing of Chinese characters, English words, and pictures: Evidence from fMRI. NeuroImage, 12 (4). pp. 392-403. ISSN 1053-8119. (doi:10.1006/nimg.2000.0631) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:16250)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1006/nimg.2000.0631

Abstract

The functional anatomy of Chinese character processing was investigated using fMRI. Right-handed Mandarin-English bilingual participants made either semantic or perceptual size judgements with characters and pictures. Areas jointly activated by character and picture semantic tasks compared to size judgement tasks included the left prefrontal region (BA 9, 44, 45), left posterior temporal, left fusiform, and left parietal regions. Character processing produced greater activation than picture processing in the left mid and posterior temporal as well as left prefrontal regions. The lateral occipital regions were more active during picture semantic processing than character semantic processing. A similar pattern of activation and contrasts was observed when English words and pictures were compared in another set of bilingual participants. However, there was less contrast between word and picture semantic processing than between character and picture processing in the left prefrontal region. When character and word semantic processing were compared directly in a third group, the loci of activation peaks was similar in both languages but Chinese character semantic processing was associated with a larger MR signal change. The semantic processing of Chinese characters, English words, and pictures activates a common semantic system within which there are modality-specific differences. The semantic processing of Chinese characters more closely resembles English words than pictures. (C) 2000 Academic Press.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1006/nimg.2000.0631
Uncontrolled keywords: Chinese characters; fMRI; semantic memory; bilinguals; character recognition
Subjects: R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Engineering and Digital Arts
Depositing User: P. Ogbuji
Date Deposited: 06 Apr 2009 07:39 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 09:54 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/16250 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

Weekes, Brendan S..

Creator's ORCID:
CReDIT Contributor Roles:
  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.