Abstract
Communications through electronic devices require knowledge in typewriting, typically with the pinyin input method in China. Yet, the over utilization of the pronunciation-based pinyin input method may violate the traditional learning processes of written Chinese, which involves abundant visual orthographic analysis of characters and repeated writing. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the influence of pinyin typing on reading neurodevelopment of intermediate Chinese readers (age 9–11). We found that, relative to less frequent pinyin users, more frequent pinyin users showed an overall weaker pattern of cortical activations in the left middle frontal gyrus, left inferior frontal gyrus, and right fusiform gyrus in performing reading tasks. In addition, more frequent pinyin typists had relatively less gray matter volume in the left middle frontal region, a site known to be crucial for Chinese reading. This study demonstrates that Chinese children’s brain development in the information era is affected by the frequent use of the pinyin input method.
Highlights
The rise of digital technology has penetrated every aspect of our lives, and it has especially changed the traditional mode of communication and learning
We found that children who spent less time using the pinyin input method had significantly higher gray matter volume in the left middle frontal gyrus (BA10; Montreal Neurological Institute (MNI) coordinate: x = −36, y = 46, z = 18; cluster size = 13) relative to those who spent more time on pinyin typing after permutation test with ThresholdFree Cluster Enhancement (TFCE) correction at p < 0.05
Our findings have demonstrated that frequent usage of pinyin typing and digital devices were associated with overall weaker cortical activations, weaker functional connections, and less gray matter volume within the Chinese reading cortical network
Summary
The rise of digital technology has penetrated every aspect of our lives, and it has especially changed the traditional mode of communication and learning. The pinyin input method requires limited visuo-orthographic analysis of written Chinese characters. Little is known whether or not heavy reliance on typewriting over handwriting would interfere with children’s neural development associated with reading, especially in the brain regions involved in visuo-orthographic analysis of written words. Number of subjects for the analysis 20 of the homophone, orthographic, and font-size judgment tasks after exclusion of invalid data. Number of subjects for the analysis 20 of VBM after exclusion of invalid data relatively less time (less than 15 min per day) (see Table 1) They performed four whole-brain fMRI runs, including reading comprehension of short stories, homophone judgment, orthographic judgment, and font-size judgment of Chinese characters. Subjects made button responses with their right hand in all four
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call