Journal
NEUROPSYCHOLOGIA
Volume 42, Issue 7, Pages 967-979Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2003.11.019
Keywords
magnetoencephalography; temporal lobe; laterality; Chinese; functional brain imaging; language
Funding
- NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS AND STROKE [R01NS037941] Funding Source: NIH RePORTER
- NICHD NIH HHS [HD30885] Funding Source: Medline
- NINDS NIH HHS [NS37941] Funding Source: Medline
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Chinese differs from Indo-European languages in both its written and spoken forms. Being a tonal language, tones convey lexically meaningful information. The current study examines patterns of neurophysiological activity in temporal and temporoparietal brain areas as speakers of two Indo-European languages (Spanish and English) and speakers of Mandarin-Chinese were engaged in a spoken-word recognition task that is used clinically for the presurgical determination of hemispheric dominace for receptive language functions. Brain magnetic activation profiles were obtained from 92 healthy adult volunteers: 30 monolingual native speakers of Mandarin-Chinese, 20 Spanish-speaking, and 42 native speakers of American English. Activation scans were acquired in two different whole-head MEG systems using identical testing methods. Results indicate that (a) the degree of hemispheric asymmetry in the duration of neurophysiological activity in temporal and temporoparietal regions was reduced in the Chinese group, (b) the proportion of individuals who showed bilaterally symmetric activation was significantly higher in this group, and (c) group differences in functional hemispheric asymmetry were first noted after the initial sensory processing of the word stimuli. Furthermore, group differences in the degree of hemispheric asymmetry were primarily due to greater degree of activation in the right temporoparietal region in the Chinese group, suggesting increased participation of this region in the spoken word recognition in Mandarin-Chinese. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All fights reserved.
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