Subjects: Psychology >> Other Disciplines of Psychology submitted time 2024-01-17
Abstract： The left Angular Gyrus (LAG) is a critical brain region for semantic processing in the cognitive neuroscience of language. Increasing attention has been paid to the function of LAG in lexical-semantic processing since its function has not been consistently understood. Anatomically, the LAG is located at the junction of the temporal, occipital, and parietal lobes, with extensive white matter fiber bundles, determining that it may integrate information across regions. Researchers have proposed the LAG as the "convergence zone" in semantic representation and processing, as it is activated in high-level semantic representation, conjunctive representation of modalities and feature information, semantic relationship representation, and semantic integration processing. However, there are still debates about the LAG regarding the semantic representation hub, semantic executive control processing, and semantic processing of the default mode network. Future studies should comprehensively consider its anatomical basis and connections with a wide range of brain regions, and conduct in-depth and detailed discussions on the function of the LAG subregion.
Subjects: Other Disciplines >> Synthetic discipline submitted time 2023-10-09 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： Previous studies have shown that morpho-semantic information can be activated automatically and influence the access of word meaning in compound word recognition. However, the time course underlying the morpho-semantic activation and its subsequent integration is not clear yet. In particular, little is known about how morpho-semantic information involves in word semantic integration processing. The present study examined the time course of morpho-semantic information of the first and the second characters who participated in whole-word semantic integration processing using event-related potential (ERP) technology. We selected three types of two-character words: transparent, opaque compound words, and monomorphemic words. For the transparent words (e.g., 炽热), both two characters’ meanings (both 炽 and 热 mean hot) were identical or similar to the word meaning (炽热 means hot). As for the opaque words (e.g., 风流), the meaning of the first character (风means wind), the second character (流 means flow), and the compound word (风流 means amorousness) were completely different. The monomorphemic words (e.g., 伶俐) were materials as the control condition with two characters that cannot be split into two morphemes. Participants were instructed to complete a visual lexical decision task. ERP results showed that the first character processing revealed the morphological effect in the early (300~400 ms) and the late (460~700 ms) time window, in which two types of compound words induced more negative amplitude than the monomorphemic words. During the second character processing, a significant semantic transparency effect was observed in the early stage (260~420 ms), that the opaque words evoked more negative-going waveform than the transparent ones. Whereas at the late phase (480~700 ms), a reversed morphological effect emerged that the two types of compound words evoked more positive amplitude than the monomorphemic words. The present study shed light on the time course of morpho-semantic integration in Chinese compound word recognition. The results indicated that the morpho-semantic processing began at the early stage of processing the first character. The transparent morpho-semantic of the first character influences the second character’s morpho-semantic activation and subsequently facilitates the semantic access of the compound words.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2023-09-14
Abstract： Constructing unified cognitive and neurophysiological models is the central problem in the cognitive neuroscience of word reading. The cognitive models agree that reading is the collaborative outcome of phonological and semantic processing pathways, and studies of cognitive neuroscience have also shown that reading results from a dynamic collaboration between dorsal and ventral neural pathways. To systematically clarify this dynamic collaboration mechanism within the reading network, the latest developments in neurological function and physiological basis was integrated into the following three aspects. Firstly, it points out that the underlying processing demand is the essence of the dynamic collaboration of dorsal/ventral neural pathways. Subsequently, it further clarifies that the processing demand drives the division of labor between dorsal/ventral neural pathways at different orthographic depths. Finally, it delves into the exploration of how processing demand forms the dynamic collaboration between neural pathways shaped by language experience. In conclusion, the essence of the division and collaboration between neural pathways might be driven by processing demand under the specific task. It might become a universal cross-language word reading model.
Subjects: Psychology >> Developmental Psychology submitted time 2023-03-28 Cooperative journals: 《心理科学进展》
Abstract： An increasing interest has focused on unifying the cognitive and neurobiological models of language processing with mounting evidence reported in recent years. A bottleneck problem emerged out to reveal the neural circuit of semantic processing. However, this issue remains unresolved because of the limitation of alphabetic languages. Taking the advantage of systematic mapping from orthography to meaning in Chinese characters, the proposed project aims to investigate the neural circuit of semantic processing and its cooperative division of labor with the neural circuit of phonological processing in reading Chinese characters. Study 1 is designed to identify the function regions involved in Chinese character reading by correlating the BOLD signal with the time series coding of stimulus properties. Study 2 focuses on the neural circuit of semantic processing. The first step is to examine the neural mechanism for the processing of semantic components and its influence on the processing of whole characters’ meaning. The further analysis is to investigate the nature of the involving of prior semantic related brain regions in the processing of semantic components. Study 3 adapts the Dynamic Causal Model (DCM) to examine the patterns of the connectivity among regions of reading network driven both by the stimulus properties and task demands. The expected findings will reveal the dynamic of the cooperation between the neural circuits of semantic and phonological processing. The results can provide evidence in unifying the cognitive and neurobiological models of language processing. Also, the results will provide theoretical guidance for empirical studies and applications, such as language teaching, treatment of reading disorders and clinical diagnoses.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： The left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) is a typical region identified in the brain mechanism of Chinese character reading. A common view suggests that the MFG is responsible for visual-spatial processing in reading Chinese characters, since the Chinese writing system has extremely complex structures. However, this explanation has not received direct evidence. Moreover, which kind of visual-spatial analysis underlying the MFG's activation is not clear. The current functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) study examined the functional role of the MFG in Chinese character reading by directly manipulating the spatial frequency characteristics of the Chinese character materials.The experiment adopted a 3 (characters type: Real, Pseudo, and Artificial character) by 3 (spatial frequency: Full, Low, and High spatial frequency) within-participant factorial design. All Real characters were phonograms containing two components: phonetic and semantic radicals. The phonetic radical was not pronounceable and meaningless. The semantic radical was not pronounceable and meaningful that can provide the meaning category. The Pseudo characters were created by switching the position of radicals from Real characters. The Artificial characters were scrambled strokes from Pseudo characters. Each type of character was presented in three ways with different spatial frequencies: Full, Low, and High spatial frequency. In the Full spatial frequency, items were typical stimuli. In the Low and High spatial frequency, items were spatially filtered by Gaussian filter to remain the low/high spatial frequency features. Each type of character has 60 stimuli. All 540 stimuli for nine conditions were presented in 6 runs. Each run contained 1~2 blocks for each condition and lasted for about 8 minutes. Thirty-one participants took part in the experiment to perform a one-back task in each block by detecting whether the current stimulus was the same as the previous one. Meanwhile, a multi-channel fNIRS system was used to record brain activity at the left MFG.The results found a significant main effect of character type at left MFG. The activation of MFG was stronger for Pseudo characters than for Real and Artificial characters. The left MFG also showed a significant interaction between character type and spatial frequency. The difference among the three types of characters was significant for Low spatial frequency but not for Full and High spatial frequency. For materials presented in Low spatial frequency, Pseudo characters elicited more robust activation than Real and Artificial characters. These results suggested that the left MFG was sensitive to the spatial information of Chinese characters, especially for materials presented in low spatial frequency and for materials that required more graphemic/orthographic processing.In sum, the finding provided direct evidence that the left MFG engaged in visual-spatial processing in Chinese character reading.
Subjects: Psychology >> Social Psychology submitted time 2023-03-27 Cooperative journals: 《心理学报》
Abstract： The event-related potential (ERP) studies have revealed a component (N170) near tempo-occipital electrodes was sensitive to visual words. However, its role in word reading is still controversial. A common view is that the N170 engaged in the visual/orthographic processing, whereas some evidence has shown the N170 involved in phonological and semantic processing. By taking advantage of the Chinese writing system's ideographic property, the current study directly examined whether the N170 was sensitive to the phonological and semantic processing in reading Chinese characters. Two ERP experiments were conducted in a neural adaption paradigm by manipulating the repetition of the sub-lexical phonetic/semantic radical. The ERP data were collected while participants performed a phonological judgment task on the 4th character after silently reading the four characters consecutively. The phonological similarity (Experiment 1) and semantic similarity (Experiment 2) were manipulated among the four characters. Experiment 1 examined the neural adaption of the four characters sharing the phonetic radical (e.g., 敏, 侮, 悔, 莓), the character's pronunciation (e.g., 妹, 枚, 镁, 莓), both of them (e.g., 酶, 梅, 霉, 莓), or neither (e.g., 淮, 崛, 郎, 莓) respectively. Experiment 2 examined the neural adaption of the four characters sharing the semantic radical (e.g., 狡, 狂, 猜, 狒), the character's meaning (e.g., 豹, 鹿, 羚, 狒), both of them (e.g., 狮, 狼, 狐, 狒), or neither (e.g., 淮, 崛, 郎, 狒) respectively. In both experiments, the results showed a significant neural adaption at N170 in all of the four conditions. The amplitude of the N170 observed in the 1st character decreased in the 2nd - 4th characters. In Experiment 1, the N170 neural adaptation at the left PO7 electrode was sensitive to the repetition of the phonetic radical, and the repetition of the character's pronunciation, but not to the repetition of both. These results indicated the left mid-fusiform gyrus might be sensitive to the visual/orthographic and phonological processing but not to the orthography-to-phonology mapping in Chinese character reading. In Experiment 2, the N170 neural adaption at the left PO7 electrode was only sensitive to the repetition of the character’s meaning, which indicated the semantic processing might modulate the left N170 in character reading. The N170 neural adaption at the right PO8 electrode was sensitive to the repetition of the semantic radical and the character's meaning, which suggested that right N170 was involved in visual/orthographic and semantic processing in reading characters. In sum, the findings showed that the N170 was involved in the visual/orthographic processing and engaged in the phonological and semantic processing in Chinese character reading. Furthermore, the left N170 was sensitive to the character's phonological and semantic information, whereas the right N170 was sensitive to the character’s meaning and its semantic radical.
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2023-03-10
Abstract：
Previous studies have shown that morpho-semantic information can be activated automatically and influence the access of word meaning in compound word recognition. However, the time course underlying the morpho-semantic activation and its subsequent integration is not clear yet. In particular, little is known about how morpho-semantic information involves in word semantic integration processing.
The present study examined the time course of morpho-semantic information of the first and the second characters who participated in whole-word semantic integration processing using event-related potential (ERP) technology. We selected three types of two-character words: transparent, opaque compound words, and monomorphemic words. For the transparent words (e.g., 炽热), both two characters’ meanings (both 炽 and 热 mean hot) were identical or similar to the word meaning (炽热 means hot). As for the opaque words (e.g., 风流), the meaning of the first character (风means wind), the second character (流 means flow), and the compound word (风流 means amorousness) were completely different. The monomorphemic words (e.g., 伶俐) were materials as the control condition with two characters that cannot be split into two morphemes. Participants were instructed to complete a visual lexical decision task.
ERP results showed that the first character processing revealed the morphological effect in the early (300~400 ms) and the late (460~700 ms) time window, in which two types of compound words induced more negative amplitude than the monomorphemic words. During the second character processing, a significant semantic transparency effect was observed in the early stage (260~420 ms), that the opaque words evoked more negative-going waveform than the transparent ones. Whereas at the late phase (480~700 ms), a reversed morphological effect emerged that the two types of compound words evoked more positive amplitude than the monomorphemic words.
The present study shed light on the time course of morpho-semantic integration in Chinese compound word recognition. The results indicated that the morpho-semantic processing began at the early stage of processing the first character. The transparent morpho-semantic of the first character influences the second character’s morpho-semantic activation and subsequently facilitates the semantic access of the compound words.
Peer Review Status:
Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2022-11-07
Abstract： The left middle frontal gyrus (MFG) is a typcial region identified in the brain mechanism of Chinese character reading. A common view suggests that the MFG is responsible for visual-spatial processing in reading Chinese characters, since the Chinese writing system has extremely complex structures. However, this explanation has not received direct evidence. Moreover, which kind of visual-spatial analysis underlying the MFG's activation is not clear. The current functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) study examined the functional role of the MFG in Chinese character reading by directly manipulating the spatial frequency characteristics of the Chinese character materials. The experiment adopted a 3 (characters type: Real, Pseudo, and Artificial character) by 3 (spatial frequency: Full, Low, and High spatial frequency) within-participant factorial design. All Real characters were phonograms contained two components: phonetic and semantic radicals. The phonetic radical was not pronounceable and meaningless. The semantic radical was not pronounceable and meaningful that can provide the meaning category. The Pseudo characters were created by switching the position of radicals from Real characters. The Artificial characters were scrambled strokes from Pseudo characters. Each type of character was presented in three ways with different spatial frequencies: Full, Low, and High spatial frequency. In the Full spatial frequency, items were typical stimuli. In the Low and High spatial frequency, items were spatially filtered by Gaussian filter to remain the low/high spatial frequency features. Each type of character has 60 stimuli. All 540 stimuli for nine conditions were presented in 6 runs. Each run contained 1~2 blocks for each condition and lasted for about 8 minutes. Thirty-one participants took part in the experiment to perform a one-back task in each block by detecting whether the current stimulus was the same as the previous one. Meanwhile, a multi-channel fNIRS system was used to record brain activity at the left MFG. The results found a significant main effect of character type at left MFG. The activation of MFG was stronger for Pseudo character than for Real and Artificial character. The left MFG also showed a significant interaction between character type and spatial frequency. The difference among the three types of characters was significant for Low spatial frequency but not for Full and High spatial frequency. For materials presented in Low spatial frequency, Pseudo characters elicited more robust activation than Real and Artificial characters. These results suggested that the left MFG was sensitive to the spatial information of Chinese characters, especially for materials presented in low spatial frequency and for materials that required more graphemic/orthographic processing. In sum, the finding provided direct evidence that the left MFG engaged in visual-spatial processing in Chinese character reading.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
Subjects: Psychology >> Cognitive Psychology submitted time 2021-03-04
Abstract： The event-related potential (ERP) studies have revealed a component (N170) near tempo-occipital electrodes was sensitive to visual words. However, its role in word reading is still controversial. A common view is that the N170 engaged in the visual/orthographic processing, whereas some evidence has shown the N170 involved in phonological and semantic processing. By taking advantage of the Chinese writing system's ideographic property, the current study directly examined whether the N170 was sensitive to the phonological and semantic processing in reading Chinese characters. Two ERP experiments were conducted in a neural adaption paradigm by manipulating the repetition of the sub-lexical phonetic/semantic radical. The ERP data were collected while participants performed a phonological judgment task on the 4th character after silently reading the four characters consecutively. The phonological similarity (Experiment 1) and semantic similarity (Experiment 2) were manipulated among the four characters. Experiment 1 examined the neural adaption of the four characters sharing the phonetic radical (e.g., 敏, 侮, 悔, 莓), the character's pronunciation (e.g., 妹, 枚, 镁, 莓), both of them (e.g., 酶, 梅, 霉, 莓), or neither (e.g., 淮, 崛, 郎, 莓) respectively. Experiment 2 examined the neural adaption of the four characters sharing the semantic radical (e.g., 狡, 狂, 猜, 狒), the character's meaning (e.g., 豹, 鹿, 羚, 狒), both of them (e.g., 狮, 狼, 狐, 狒), or neither (e.g., 淮, 崛, 郎, 狒) respectively. In both experiments, the results showed a significant neural adaption at N170 in all of the four conditions. The amplitude of the N170 observed in the 1st character decreased in the 2nd – 4th characters. In Experiment 1, the N170 neural adaptation at the left PO7 electrode was sensitive to the repetition of the phonetic radical, and the repetition of the character's pronunciation, but not to the repetition of both. These results indicated the left mid-fusiform gyrus might be sensitive to the visual/orthographic and phonological processing but not to the orthography-to-phonology mapping in Chinese character reading. In Experiment 2, the N170 neural adaption at the left PO7 electrode was only sensitive to the repetition of the character's meaning, which indicated the semantic processing might modulate the left N170 in character reading. The N170 neural adaption at the right PO8 electrode was sensitive to the repetition of the semantic radical and the character's meaning, which suggested that right N170 was involved in visual/orthographic and semantic processing in reading characters. In sum, the findings showed that the N170 was involved in the visual/orthographic processing and engaged in the phonological and semantic processing in Chinese character reading. Furthermore, the left N170 was sensitive to the character's phonological and semantic information, whereas the right N170 was sensitive to the character's meaning and its semantic radical.
Peer Review Status:Awaiting Review
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