因为汉字具有与拼音字母语言不同的方形书写结构以及字型映射规则,已有很多研究关注这两种语言是否存在着不同的阅读机制,但还在争论中。本研究通过功能磁共振技术,采用汉字和英文两种语言的真字(词),假字(词)以及非字(词)作为刺激材料来进一步研究此问题。研究结果显示:在高频字(词)条件下,汉字和英文具有相似的阅读机制,但在阅读假字(词)时,它们的阅读机制差异很大。具体表现为英文假词激活了左脑缘上回,而汉字假词激活了左脑额中回。研究结果说明:1)汉英双语者可能采用了两种不同的双线路机制来读取汉字和英文单词。2)汉英双语者在阅读英文假词时,须借助缘上回脑区进行字型转换。而在阅读汉字假字时,则需通过额中回进行笔画分析。
Because of Chinese characters' unique square form and various orthography mapping rules, many studies focused on whether the cognitive mechanism of reading Chinese characters was similar to that of reading alphabetic words. However, it was still in debate. The aim of this study was to investigate Chinese-English bilinguals' reading mechanisms of these two languages in high frequency, pseudo and artificial conditions for providing the further evidences to the above question. Our results showed that compared with high frequency conditions of the two languages, which activated the similar brain areas, the pseudo English words activated greater volume in left supramarginal gyrus, while pseudo Chinese characters in left middle frontal gyrus. These results suggested 1) Chinese-English bilinguals might adopt two kinds of dual route mechanism for reading Chinese characters and English words. 2) For Chinese-English bilinguals, the left supramarginal gyrus played a crucial role for converting grapheme to phoneme during reading pseudo English words as native English speakers; the left middle frontal gyrus might play a important role for the radical analyzing while reading pseudo Chinese characters.