The differences of visual word form processing mechanism between Chinese and Western pure alexia

Abstract

Pure alexia is a dysfunction with simple symptoms and specific impaired regions, which happens at early stage of reading called visual word form processing, and involves visual word form area (VWFA). Reading as an acquired higher nervous function is closely related with culture, so the comparison between Chinese and Western pure alexia could lead to further understanding of visual word form processing mechanism. As the different clinical manifestations of pure alexia in Chinese and Western cultures, the signal distinction of words is the primary cause whereas the plasticity of VWFA is the neurobiological basis. Chinese and Western reading both present left-hemispheric lateralization, but based on the special feature of Chinese pure alexia, it is inferred that the right hemispheric may play a more outstanding role in Chinese word processing. In fMRI research on Chinese and Western reading, it is indicated that there is hierarchical organization in VWFA, which is corresponding to hierarchical coding in sublexical processing, but it cannot elucidate some phenomena in Chinese pure alexia such as absence of word-length effect (WLE). Chinese word recognition might largely rely on ventral visual pathway, i.e. the whole word processing. DOI: 10.3969/j.issn.1672-6731.2016.05.003