The Role And Neural Mechanisms Of Consonant,vowel And Tone In Chinese Language Output: An FNIRS Study

Mandarin Chinese is a "tonal language",and its semantics are determined by the consonant,vowel and tone.However,most of the research and theoretical models of language production are based on non-tone language,and think that tone information will not play a role in language production,and the neural mechanism of tone is closer to music,which will cause more right brain activation.Therefore,this study aimed to investigate the role and neural mechanism of tone and segment in the production of Mandarin Chinese language.The research adopts PWI paradigm,explores the problem through two functional near-infrared spectroscopy(fNIRS)experiments,and examines the impact of individual differences on language through study three.In study 1,subjects were asked to name the Chinese characters displayed on the computer screen under the interference of auditory stimuli.There are four experimental conditions,namely audio-visual consistency,consonant inconsistency,vowel inconsistency and tone inconsistency.The behavioral results showed that compared with the consistent condition,the reaction time of the subjects only increased under the condition of inconsistent initial consonants.FNIRS results showed that the brain activation caused by the inconsistency of consonants was concentrated in the Broca triangle area of the left inferior frontal gyrus and the left superior temporal gyrus.The inconsistency of vowels and tones would cause the brain activation of the left inferior frontal gyrus and the middle frontal gyrus.This result shows that all three phonemes can affect the output process of Chinese characters,and the processing of all three phonemes occurs in the left brain.The brain areas associated with tone and vowel processing overlap to some extent,and the brain areas associated with consonants and other two phonemes are separated.In study 2,the subjects were asked to name the pictures.The other processes were similar to those in study 1.The behavioral results showed that all three phonemes can play a role in language,and the initial consonant plays the largest role,followed by the final vowel,and finally the tone.FNIRS results showed that the neural mechanisms of the three phonemes overlap,and they all activate the top of the left inferior frontal gyrus,the left middle frontal gyrus and the top of the right inferior frontal gyrus,which has the advantage of the left brain.The activated brain area is concentrated in the top of the inferior frontal gyrus and the middle frontal gyrus of the left brain,and the activated area of the vowel is the largest.And,the neural data from study 1 and study 2 were used for correlation analysis with the subjects’ voice awareness scores.The results showed that in study 1,phonological awareness was positively correlated with the degree of nerve activation under the condition of initial consonants;In study 2,phonological awareness is positively correlated with the degree of nerve activation under the condition of vowel.The conclusions of this study are as follows:1.In Mandarin Chinese,tone and segment(consonant+ vowel)play a similar role in language production.There are overlaps in neural activation,and the three phonemes have the advantage of left brain.2.Tone and vowel have a very high binding effect,showing more same processing brain areas.3.The left middle frontal gyrus and left inferior frontal gyrus are the neural basis for the processing of consonant,vowel and tone.The relationship between the superior temporal gyrus and the processing of initial consonants is regulated by the task.4.There is a correlation between individual’s phonological awareness and the intensity of neural activation of initial consonant or vowel,but no correlation with tone is found.