Neural correlates of foveal splitting in reading: Evidence from an ERP study of Chinese character recognition

Abstract

Recent research on foveal structure and reading suggests that the two halves of a centrally fixated word seem to be initially projected to, and processed in, different hemispheres. In the current study, we utilize two contrasting structures in Chinese orthography, “SP” (the semantic radical on the left and the phonetic radical on the right) and “PS” characters (the opposite structure), to examine foveal splitting effects in event-related potential (ERP) recordings. We showed that when participants silently named centrally presented characters, there was a significant interaction between character type and hemisphere in N1 amplitude: SP characters elicited larger N1 compared with PS characters in the left hemisphere, whereas the right hemisphere had the opposite pattern. This effect is consistent with the split fovea claim, suggesting that the two halves of a character may be initially projected to and processed in different hemispheres. There was no such interaction observed in an earlier component P1. Also, there was an interaction between character type and sex of the reader in N350 amplitude. This result is consistent with Hsiao and Shillcock's [Hsiao, J. H., & Shillcock, R. (2005b). Foveal splitting causes differential processing of Chinese orthography in the male and female brain. Cognitive Brain Research, 25, 531–536] behavioural study, which showed a similar interaction in naming response time. They argued that this effect was due to a more left-lateralized network for phonological processing in the male brain compared with the female brain. The results hence showed that foveal splitting effects in visual word recognition were observed in N1 the earliest, and could extend far enough to interact with the sex of the reader as revealed in N350.