HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Nakamura, K. Articles by Shibasaki, H. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Nakamura, K. Articles by Shibasaki, H.

Modulation of the Visual Word Retrieval System in Writing: A Functional MRI Study on the Japanese Orthographies

Kyoto University

Manabu Honda

National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan

Shigeru Hirano, Tatsuhide Oga, Nobukatsu Sawamoto and Takashi Hanakawa

Kyoto University

Hiroshi Inoue and Jin Ito

Rakuwa-kai Otowa Hospital, Kyoto, Japan

Tetsu Matsuda, Hidenao Fukuyama and Hiroshi Shibasaki

Kyoto University

We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether the act of writing involves different neuropsychological mechanisms between the two script systems of the Japanese language: kanji (ideogram) and kana (phonogram). The main experiments employed a 2 x 2 factorial design that comprised writing-to-dictation and visual mental recall for kanji and kana. For both scripts, the actual writing produced a widespread fronto-parietal activation in the left hemisphere. Especially, writing of kanji activated the left posteroinferior temporal cortex (lPITC), whereas that of kana also yielded a trend of activation in the same area. Mental recall for both scripts activated similarly the left parieto-temporal regions including the lPITC. The writing versus mental recall comparison revealed greater activations in the left sensorimotor areas and right cerebellum. The kanji versus kana comparison showed increased responses in the left prefrontal and anterior cingulate areas. Especially, the lPITC showed a significant task-by-script interaction. Two additional control tasks, repetition (REP) and semantic judgment (SJ), activated the bilateral perisylvian areas, but enhanced the lPITC response only weakly. These results suggest that writing of the ideographic and phonographic scripts, although using the largely same cortical regions, each modulates the visual word-retrieval system according to their graphic features. Furthermore, comparisons with two additional tasks indicate that the activity of the lPITC increases especially in expressive language operations regardless of sensory modalities of the input stimulus.

Key Words: Kanji • Kana • Writing • Mental recall • Posteroinferior temporal cortex • fMRI

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Z. Rapcsak and P. M. Beeson The role of left posterior inferior temporal cortex in spelling Neurology, June 22, 2004; 62(12): 2221 - 2229. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]