Morphological processing in Chinese engages left temporal regions

Morphological awareness, the ability to manipulate the smallest units of meaning, is critical for Chinese literacy. This is because Chinese characters typically reflect the morphemic, or morpho-syllabic units of language. Yet, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying Chinese speakers’ morphological...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Desai, N. (Author), Hsu, L.S.-J (Author), Ip, K.I (Author), Kovelman, L. (Author), Kuan, J.L (Author), Marks, R.A (Author), Tardif, T. (Author)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Academic Press Inc. 2019
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Online Access:View Fulltext in Publisher
LEADER 03150nam a2200733Ia 4500
001 10.1016-j.bandl.2019.104696
008 220511s2019 CNT 000 0 und d
020 |a 0093934X (ISSN) 
245 1 0 |a Morphological processing in Chinese engages left temporal regions 
260 0 |b Academic Press Inc.  |c 2019 
856 |z View Fulltext in Publisher  |u https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2019.104696 
520 3 |a Morphological awareness, the ability to manipulate the smallest units of meaning, is critical for Chinese literacy. This is because Chinese characters typically reflect the morphemic, or morpho-syllabic units of language. Yet, the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying Chinese speakers’ morphological processing remain understudied. Proficient readers (N = 14) completed morphological and phonological judgment tasks in Chinese, in both auditory and visual modalities, during fMRI imaging. Key to our inquiry were patterns of activation in left temporal regions, especially the superior temporal gyrus, which is critical for phonological processing and reading success. The findings revealed that morphological tasks elicited robust activation in superior and middle temporal regions commonly associated with automated phonological and lexico-semantic analyses. In contrast, the rhyme judgment task elicited greater activation in left frontal lobe regions, reflecting the analytical complexity of sound-to-print mapping in Chinese. The findings suggest that left temporal regions are sensitive to salient morpho-syllabic characteristics of a given language. © 2019 Elsevier Inc. 
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650 0 4 |a Article 
650 0 4 |a Asian continental ancestry group 
650 0 4 |a Asian Continental Ancestry Group 
650 0 4 |a brain mapping 
650 0 4 |a Brain Mapping 
650 0 4 |a Chinese script 
650 0 4 |a controlled study 
650 0 4 |a Cross-linguistic 
650 0 4 |a decision making 
650 0 4 |a female 
650 0 4 |a Female 
650 0 4 |a fMRI 
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650 0 4 |a Frontal Lobe 
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650 0 4 |a human 
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650 0 4 |a language processing 
650 0 4 |a left hemisphere 
650 0 4 |a Literacy 
650 0 4 |a male 
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650 0 4 |a Morphological awareness 
650 0 4 |a morphological processing 
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650 0 4 |a phonetics 
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650 0 4 |a physiology 
650 0 4 |a psychology 
650 0 4 |a reading 
650 0 4 |a reading 
650 0 4 |a Reading 
650 0 4 |a semantics 
650 0 4 |a Semantics 
650 0 4 |a superior temporal gyrus 
650 0 4 |a temporal lobe 
650 0 4 |a temporal lobe 
650 0 4 |a Temporal Lobe 
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700 1 |a Desai, N.  |e author 
700 1 |a Hsu, L.S.-J.  |e author 
700 1 |a Ip, K.I.  |e author 
700 1 |a Kovelman, L.  |e author 
700 1 |a Kuan, J.L.  |e author 
700 1 |a Marks, R.A.  |e author 
700 1 |a Tardif, T.  |e author 
773 |t Brain and Language