The Mechanisms And Functional Division Of Temporal Lobe And Frontal Lobe In Phonology And Semantic Processing

Neuro-linguistic studies have confirmed that temporal lobe and frontal lobe in the left hemisphere involved in language processing, but the processing mechanism and functional division of the temporal cortex and frontal cortex at the level of single word is still a controversy. This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques to investigate the mechanisms and functional division of temporal cortex and frontal cortex in a single word processing.Experiment I: reading Chinese "pseudo-pinyin" and Chinese pinyin of concrete noun silentlyIn the past Chinese research, in order to investigate the mechanisms of phonology processing, the researchers utilized various means to separate the semantic, the experimental materials which have been prepared included non-words, pseudo single words, pseudo double words, reverse words and so on. Non-words and pseudo single words have no word pronunciation, not suitable for reading tasks. Pseudo double words and reverse words don't make sense overall, but the constituent unit of them is the true word, not ruling out the semantic processing. There are many previous studies which have shown that left middle frontal gyrus is unique for Chinese language processing, but a few studies have found the activation of the temporal cortex in Chinese language processing. The function of temporal cortex in the processing of Chinese words is still a controversy. In order to splitting semantic processing, this experiment prepares Chinese "pseudo-pinyin" as experimental material, meanwhile utilizing Chinese Pinyin of concrete noun (i.e. "true-pinyin") as control material. The aim of this study is to explore the specific mechanisms of left temporal cortex in Chinese word processing and the division rules with frontal cortex.10 college students participated in the experiment were asked to read silently the Chinese "pseudo-pinyin" and "true-pinyin" which were represented visually. Each of the two groups had 80 experimental materials. We utilize block design. This experiment has a total of four trials, each trial has 4 blocks. The results showed that: compared with the baseline task, reading silently Chinese "pseudo-pinyin" activated the left middle temporal gyrus and other brain regions, and reading silently "true-pinyin" activated the left middle frontal gyrus and other brain regions. "pseudo-pinyin" VS "true-pinyin" additionally activated the left superior frontal gyrus, thalamus and some regions of the right brain hemisphere. Group results showed that phonology and tone showed significant interactions in the bilateral cerebellum, left middle frontal gyrus, left precuneus, right superior frontal gyrus.Experiment II: reading English monosyllabic words and words ending in a consonant silentlyThe researches in the past about the brain processing mechanism of English have reported the activation in the temporal cortex, but there were a few studies which found the cortical activation of frontal lobe. The functional division of temporal cortex and frontal cortex in the processing of English words is still controversial. Traditionally, previous researchers used multi-syllable words as the experimental materials to study the function of the brain language areas, while is the brain processing mechanisms of English monosyllabic words different? Is the brain processing mechanisms of English monosyllabic words the same with that of Chinese single words? These issues need to be further studied. Our study utilized a limited number of English monosyllabic words as the experimental material, and the words ending in a consonant as the control material, to explore the mechanisms and functional division of temporal cortex and frontal cortex in English words processing.10 college students participated in the experiment were asked to read silently monosyllabic words and words ending in a consonant which were represented visually. Each of the two groups had 72 experimental materials. We utilize block design. This experiment has a total of two trials. Each trial has 6 blocks.The results showed that: compared with the baseline task, reading silently monosyllabic words activated the left middle frontal gyrus and other brain regions, reading silently words ending in a consonant activated brain regions such as temporal cortex. According to the experiment I and experiment II, the study confirmed:1, Temporal cortex involved in phonological processing, but not processing semantic; the frontal cortical processes monosyllabic language stimuli whose phonology and semantic bundled together.2, The functional division of frontal cortex and temporal cortex depends on the relevance of pronunciation and meaning of the single word.3, Language processing rules of frontal lobe and temporal lobe are universal. That is to say, no matter what language processing, they need to use the general cognitive mechanisms and the same neural anatomy.