An fMRI study with written Chinese

Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (ER-fMRI) was used to i nvestigate how the human brain processes phonology and transforms a word's visual form (orthography) into phonological form during reading in logograp hic Chinese, a writing system that differs markedly from alphabetic languag es. We found that reading aloud of irregular words produced larger MR signa l intensity changes over extensive regions involving left infero-middle fro ntal cortex, left motor cortex, right infero-frontal gyri, bilateral anteri or superior temporal areas, and anterior cingulate cortex. Right superior p arietal lobule, the cuneus in bilateral visual cortex, and thalamus partici pated in the processing of irregular, but not regular, words. These finding s were discussed in comparison to neuroimaging findings from alphabetic lan guages, as well as in relation to models of reading. NeuroReport 12:83-88 ( C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.