Functional neuroimaging studies of Chinese character and pure tone processing for language education

Abstract

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to map brain activation during visual language task. As the result, educations have implications for other cognitive ability as well as language skill. There have no data related to different during Chinese auditory word processing in literate and illiterate subject. In this study, we analyzed data based on fMRI experimental to examine the effects of education on brain activation associated with language and control tasks in 26 healthy right-handed Chinese subjects (13 literates and 13 illiterates).There were 36 pairs of Chinese auditory word in the language task and 36 pairs of pure tone in the control task. When we compared literate and illiterate subjects, we observed education-related differences in activation patterns. As the result, we discovered bilateral different brain activations in the bilateral middle frontal gyrus (BA6), the right middle occipital gyrus (BA32), the right inferior frontal gyrus (BA47), the right middle temporal gyrus (BA21), the right superior temporal gyrus (BA22), the bilateral middle frontal gyrus (BA9) and cerebellum. Conclusion that education have implications for other cognitive ability as well as language processing, literate might respond in these task more accuracy and quickly than illiterate.