Processing Chinese hand-radicals activates the medial frontal gyrus
Qing-Lin Wu
Yu-Chen Chan
Joseph P. Lavallee
Hsueh-Chin Chen
Kuo-En Chang
Yao-Ting Sung
摘要：Embodied semantics theory asserts that the meaning of action-related words is neural y represented through networks that overlap with or are identical to networks involved in sory-motor processing. While some studies supporting this theory have focused on Chinese cha-racters, less attention has been paid to their semantic radicals. Indeed, there is stil disagreement about whether these radicals are processed independently. The present study investigated whether radicals are processed separately and, if so, whether this processing occurs in sensory-motor gions. Materials consisted of 72 high-frequency Chinese characters, with 18 in each of four ries:hand-action verbs with and without hand-radicals, and verbs not related to hand actions, with and without hand-radicals. Twenty-eight participants underwent functional MRI scans while reading the characters. Compared to characters without hand-radicals, reading characters with hand-radicals activated the right medial frontal gyrus. Verbs involving hand-action activated the left inferior parietal lobule, possibly reflecting integration of information in the radical with the semantic meaning of the verb. The findings may be consistent with embodied semantics theory and suggest that neural representation of radicals is indispensable in processing Chinese characters.
机标关键词：Chinese charactersinformation infunctional MRI
论文发表日期：2013-01-01
在线出版日期：2025-08-15（本平台首次上网日期，不代表文献的发表时间）
页数：7( 1837-1843 )
英文信息