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Article: Functional anatomy of syntactic and semantic processing in language comprehension

TitleFunctional anatomy of syntactic and semantic processing in language comprehension
Authors
KeywordsChinese reading
FMRI
Language comprehension
Syntactic processing
Issue Date2002
PublisherJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc. The Journal's web site is located at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/38751
Citation
Human Brain Mapping, 2002, v. 16 n. 3, p. 133-145 How to Cite?
AbstractA functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was conducted to map syntactic and semantic processes onto the brain. Chinese-English bilingual subjects performed two experimental tasks: a syntactic plausibility judgment task in which they decided whether a viewed verb phrase was syntactically legal, and a semantic plausibility judgment task in which they decided whether a viewed phrase was semantically acceptable. A font size judgment task was used as baseline. It is found that a large-scale distributed neural network covering the left mid-inferior frontal and mid-superior temporal cortices was responsible for the processing of Chinese phrases. The right homologue areas of these left cortical sites were also active, although the brain activity was obviously left-lateralized. Unlike previous research with monolingual English speakers that showed that distinct brain regions mediate syntactic and semantic processing of English, the cortical sites contributing to syntactic analysis of Chinese phrases coincided with the cortical sites relevant to semantic analysis. Stronger brain activity, however, was seen in the left middle frontal cortex for syntactic processing (relative to semantic processing), whereas for semantic processing stronger cortical activations were shown in the left inferior prefrontal cortex and the left mid-superior temporal gyri. The overall pattern of results indicates that syntactic processing is less independent in reading Chinese. This is attributable to the linguistic nature of the Chinese language that semantics and syntax are not always clearly demarcated. Equally interesting, we discovered that when our bilingual subjects performed syntactic and semantic acceptability judgments of English phrases, they applied the cerebral systems underlying Chinese reading to the processing of English. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Persistent Identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/156020
ISSN
2023 Impact Factor: 3.5
2023 SCImago Journal Rankings: 1.626
ISI Accession Number ID
References

 

DC FieldValueLanguage
dc.contributor.authorLuke, KKen_HK
dc.contributor.authorLiu, HLen_HK
dc.contributor.authorWai, YYen_HK
dc.contributor.authorWan, YLen_HK
dc.contributor.authorTan, LHen_HK
dc.date.accessioned2012-08-08T08:39:49Z-
dc.date.available2012-08-08T08:39:49Z-
dc.date.issued2002en_HK
dc.identifier.citationHuman Brain Mapping, 2002, v. 16 n. 3, p. 133-145en_HK
dc.identifier.issn1065-9471en_HK
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10722/156020-
dc.description.abstractA functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was conducted to map syntactic and semantic processes onto the brain. Chinese-English bilingual subjects performed two experimental tasks: a syntactic plausibility judgment task in which they decided whether a viewed verb phrase was syntactically legal, and a semantic plausibility judgment task in which they decided whether a viewed phrase was semantically acceptable. A font size judgment task was used as baseline. It is found that a large-scale distributed neural network covering the left mid-inferior frontal and mid-superior temporal cortices was responsible for the processing of Chinese phrases. The right homologue areas of these left cortical sites were also active, although the brain activity was obviously left-lateralized. Unlike previous research with monolingual English speakers that showed that distinct brain regions mediate syntactic and semantic processing of English, the cortical sites contributing to syntactic analysis of Chinese phrases coincided with the cortical sites relevant to semantic analysis. Stronger brain activity, however, was seen in the left middle frontal cortex for syntactic processing (relative to semantic processing), whereas for semantic processing stronger cortical activations were shown in the left inferior prefrontal cortex and the left mid-superior temporal gyri. The overall pattern of results indicates that syntactic processing is less independent in reading Chinese. This is attributable to the linguistic nature of the Chinese language that semantics and syntax are not always clearly demarcated. Equally interesting, we discovered that when our bilingual subjects performed syntactic and semantic acceptability judgments of English phrases, they applied the cerebral systems underlying Chinese reading to the processing of English. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.en_HK
dc.languageengen_US
dc.publisherJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc. The Journal's web site is located at http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/38751en_HK
dc.relation.ispartofHuman Brain Mappingen_HK
dc.subjectChinese readingen_HK
dc.subjectFMRIen_HK
dc.subjectLanguage comprehensionen_HK
dc.subjectSyntactic processingen_HK
dc.subject.meshAdulten_US
dc.subject.meshBrain - Anatomy & Histology - Physiologyen_US
dc.subject.meshBrain Mappingen_US
dc.subject.meshCognition - Physiologyen_US
dc.subject.meshFunctional Laterality - Physiologyen_US
dc.subject.meshHumansen_US
dc.subject.meshLanguage Testsen_US
dc.subject.meshMagnetic Resonance Imagingen_US
dc.subject.meshMaleen_US
dc.subject.meshNerve Net - Anatomy & Histology - Physiologyen_US
dc.subject.meshPattern Recognition, Visual - Physiologyen_US
dc.subject.meshPhotic Stimulationen_US
dc.subject.meshReadingen_US
dc.subject.meshSemanticsen_US
dc.subject.meshTaiwanen_US
dc.subject.meshVerbal Behavior - Physiologyen_US
dc.titleFunctional anatomy of syntactic and semantic processing in language comprehensionen_HK
dc.typeArticleen_HK
dc.identifier.emailLuke, KK: kkluke@hkusua.hku.hken_HK
dc.identifier.emailTan, LH: tanlh@hku.hken_HK
dc.identifier.authorityLuke, KK=rp01201en_HK
dc.identifier.authorityTan, LH=rp01202en_HK
dc.description.naturelink_to_subscribed_fulltexten_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1002/hbm.10029en_HK
dc.identifier.pmid12112767-
dc.identifier.scopuseid_2-s2.0-0036301133en_HK
dc.identifier.hkuros68622-
dc.relation.referenceshttp://www.scopus.com/mlt/select.url?eid=2-s2.0-0036301133&selection=ref&src=s&origin=recordpageen_HK
dc.identifier.volume16en_HK
dc.identifier.issue3en_HK
dc.identifier.spage133en_HK
dc.identifier.epage145en_HK
dc.identifier.isiWOS:000176619000001-
dc.publisher.placeUnited Statesen_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridLuke, KK=7003697439en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridLiu, HL=7409756284en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridWai, YY=23109785800en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridWan, YL=7402417304en_HK
dc.identifier.scopusauthoridTan, LH=7402233462en_HK
dc.identifier.citeulike4487475-
dc.identifier.issnl1065-9471-

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