Abstract
Morphological decomposition is an important part of complex word processing. In Chinese, this requires a comprehensive consideration of phonological, orthographic and morphemic information. The left inferior frontal gyrus (L-IFG) has been implicated in this process in alphabetic languages. However, it is unclear whether the neural mechanisms underlying morphological processing in alphabetic languages would be the same in Chinese, a logographic language. To investigate the neural basis of morphological processing in Chinese compound words, an fMRI experiment was conducted using an explicit auditory morphological judgment task. Results showed the L-IFG to be a core area in Chinese morphological processing, consistent with research in alphabetic languages. Additionally, a broad network consisting of the L-MTG, the bilateral STG and the L-FG that taps phonological, orthographic, and semantic information was found to be involved. These results provide evidence that the L-IFG plays an important role in morphological processing even in languages that are typologically different.
Highlights
Morphology concerns the internal structure of words as reflected by systematic correlations of form and meaning
These results showed that Chinese spoken word processing is associated with broad brain networks covering the frontal-temporal-occipital regions (Figure 2), consistent with previous findings for spoken word processing (Hickok and Poeppel, 2007; Hagoort, 2008; Moore et al, 2008; Obleser et al, 2008; Tyler and Marslen-Wilson, 2008; Price, 2010)
In order to examine whether the left inferior frontal gyrus (L-IFG) was robustly activated for Chinese morphological processing, conjunction and Regions of Interest (ROI) methods were used in the subsequent analysis
Summary
Morphology concerns the internal structure of words as reflected by systematic correlations of form (orthography, phonology) and meaning (semantics). Previous research has consistently shown that a word (e.g., scan) is recognized faster when it is primed by a morphologically-related inflected or derived word (e.g., scans, scanner), compared to when it is primed by a visually similar but unrelated word (e.g., scandal; Bozic et al, 2007). In English, derivationally complex words are used to investigate morphological effects because the independence of form, meaning, and morphological structure can be directly distinguished in derived words. A delayed repetition priming task found that morphologically related words (e.g., scan-scanner) significantly reduced activation in the left inferior frontal gyrus (L-IFG), as compared with identity (e.g., scan-scan) and orthographic form (e.g., scan-skim) conditions.
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