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 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 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.
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