Visual language and handwriting movement: Functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 tesla during generation of ideographic characters

A functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment at 3 tesla was performed to investigate the collaborative mechanism between visuospatial processing and motor execution in performing visual language generation tasks. Japane se Kanji, ideographic characters, were utilized to design tasks. The bilate ral border portions between the inferior parietal lobule and the occipital lobe were involved during a Kanji puzzle task, which required subjects to c ombine several parts into a Kanji. The higher motor areas, such as the prem otor areas and the pre-supplementary motor areas, were also activated bilat erally during the puzzle task. The parieto-occipital activation may be rela ted to analysis of configuration or segmentation/integration of Kanji figur es. Activation in the higher motor areas may be induced by cognitive compon ents related to motor function to perform the visuospatial language task, s uch as intense reference for displayed characters and finding a proper char acter for puzzle solution. A collaborative mechanism in these areas may exp lain the effectiveness of tactile reading in letter recognition by patients with pure alexia or kinesthetic facilitation by Kanji users when recalling difficult Kanji. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc.