Cerebral responses to the visually presented processing of nouns, verbs and adjectives in mandarin Chinese: A functional MRI evaluation

Abstract

AIM： To identify the brain regions associated with the processing of Chinese Noun Phrases (NP), Verb Phrases (VP) and Adjective Phrases (AP) with functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI).

METHODS：The experiment was carried out in the Beijing Anzhen Hospital, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Key Laboratory of Language Sciences and Neurocognitive Engineering of Jiangsu Province from May 2004 to November 2006.①Eight subjects taking Chinese as their native tongue, in right-handedness, were adopted in this study. Regional blood oxygenation level dependence were recorded with a T2* weighted gradient echo planer imaging (EPI) sequence while the subjects silently read stimulation of NP, VP, and AP, which were three basic classes of Chinese content words. The E-Prime software was used to control the stimuli presentation and force the subjects to read the words projected on the optical reflector.②The experiment was consisted of two scanning sessions and each session contained 9 blocks of stimuli. Each block was composed of the same type of stimuli and for each type of stimuli, they were grouped into four blocks. A Siemens 1.5T superconductor MR machine was employed to conduct the scanning according to three sequences. For each subject, we collected a high resolution 3-dimensional anatomical image of entire brain, three functional EPI images and an location image. For the EPI image, the time of repetition was 100 ms. A whole brain EPI scan was consisted of 20 slices, with each slice of 5-mm thick plus 1.5-mm gap. Field of view was 220 × 220 mm, with the resolution matrix of 64×64 pixel. Analysis of functional neuroimage soft package was used for data analysis. The difference of brain regions associate with NP, VP, and AP indicated the brain regions of word processing.

RESULT: Six subjects were all involved in the result analysis. Reading of Chinese phrases elicited a large set of brain regions, including left superior, middle and inferior frontal gyrus, left superior and middle temporal gyrus, cingulate gyrus, and some regions in the right hemisphere. Those regions were different and/or overlaid for different tasks. The contrast of reading NP with VP and AP revealed a higher brain activation in anterior cingulate gyrus, right inferior frontal gyrus and anterior part of bilateral frontal gyrus.

CONCLUSION:The processing of different types of Chinese phrases (NP, VP, AP) entails intensively overlapped brain areas, the activations of these brain areas are higher in NP than in VP and AP. Moreover, the cingulate gyrus appears to be critical for the process of NP. Different Chinese phase processing depends on the difference brain regions.

Feng SW, Weng XC, Shen XA, Lin CY, Xiang HD, Yang YM.Cerebral responses to the visually presented processing of nouns, verbs and adjectives in mandarin Chinese: A functional MRI evaluation.Zhongguo Zuzhi Gongcheng Yanjiu yu Linchuang Kangfu 2007;11(22):4333-4336(China) [www.zglckf.com/zglckf/ejournal/upfiles/07-22/22k-4333(ps).pdf]

摘要
目的：利用功能性磁共振成像探讨大脑中与汉语名词、动词、形容词词组加工的脑区。
方法：实验于2004－05/2006－11在北京安贞医院与中科院心理研究所以及江苏省语言科学与神经认知重点实验室完成。①选择以汉语为母语的正常被试8人，均为右利手。利用基于T2*成像的EPI成像技术记录被试默念汉语名动形词组时大脑局部的血氧增减，实验材料选取汉语最基本的三类实词组成词组，利用组块设计通过E-Prime软件通过投影投射到磁体内部的反光镜上，被试平躺在磁体内，透过反光镜默读实验材料。②实验分成两个序列，每个序列包含9个组块，每个组块包含一类刺激，每类刺激共4个组块。实验机器是Simens Sonata 1.5T超导型磁共振设备，分别对被试进行3个序列扫描，包括定位像，功能像和三维全脑像。其中功能像扫描重复时间为100 ms/层，单次扫描20层，每层厚5 mm，层间隔为1.5 mm，观察视野为220 mm×220 mm，分辨率为64×64象素，在扫描结束后利用AFNI软件对两个序列数据进行叠加处理，通过名动形三类词构成的词组之间脑区的差异分析不同词类加工的对应脑区。
结果：6名被试进入结果分析。默念汉语词组激活了大脑的左额上、中、下回以及内侧，左颞叶上、中回，扣带回以及右脑等许多区域，这些区域在不同任务中有区别也有重叠，特别值得注意的是，有名词参与的词组与没有名词参与的词组相比脑区激活差异明显，有名词参与的词组中，前扣带回附近，右额叶下回，双侧额叶前部等部位有明显激活。
结论：汉语中名词重叠词组要大于动词重叠词组和形容词重叠词组，名动词组要大于名形词组和动形词组。扣带回在与名词相关的词组加工中起重要作用，不同类型的汉语词组加工在大脑中依赖不同的区域。
关键词：功能性磁共振成像；名词；动词；形容词；词组；医学影像学

封世文，翁旭初，沈兴安，林冲宇，向华东，杨亦鸣.应用功能磁共振成像评估汉语名词、动词、形容词词组视觉呈现加工的脑区定位[J].中国组织工程研究与临床康复，2007，11(22):4333-4336 [www.zglckf.com/zglckf/ejournal/upfiles/07-22/22k-4333(ps).pdf]