TY - JOUR
T1 - Hemispheric involvement in the processing of Chinese idioms
T2 - An fMRI study
AU - Yang, Jie
AU - Li, Ping
AU - Fang, Xiaoping
AU - Shu, Hua
AU - Liu, Youyi
AU - Chen, Lang
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by grants from Macquarie University Research Development Grant (MQRDG 9201401500 ) to JY, from Natural Science Foundation of China ( 31271082 , 61373065 , 81461130018 ), Key Project of Philosophy and Social Sciences Research, Ministry of Education ( 11JZD041 ), and Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission ( Z151100003915122 ) to HS and YL, from the National Science Foundation (BCS- 1338946 ; BCS- 1533625 ) to PL, from the Fund for Foreign Scholars in University Research and Teaching Programs ( B07008 ) and the Fund for Humanities and Social Sciences Researcher Center under the Ministry of Education ( 08JJD740063 ) to PL and HS. We thank Angela Grant and Jennifer Legault for comments on an earlier draft of this manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd.
PY - 2016/7/1
Y1 - 2016/7/1
N2 - Although the left hemisphere is believed to handle major language functions, the role of the right hemisphere in language comprehension remains controversial. Recently researchers have investigated hemispheric language processing with figurative language materials (e.g., metaphors, jokes, and idioms). The current study capitalizes on the pervasiveness and distinct features of Chinese idioms to examine the brain mechanism of figurative language processing. Native Chinese speakers performed a non-semantic task while reading opaque idioms, transparent idioms, and non-idiomatic literal phrases. Whole-brain analyses indicated strong activations for all three conditions in an overlapping brain network that includes the bilateral inferior/middle frontal gyrus and the temporo-parietal and occipital-temporal regions. The two idiom conditions elicited additional activations in the right superior parietal lobule and right precuneus. Item-based modulation analyses further demonstrated that activation amplitudes in the right angular gyrus, right superior parietal lobule and right precuneus, as well as left inferior temporo-occipital cortex, are negatively correlated with the semantic transparency of the idioms. These results suggest that both hemispheres are involved in idiom processing but they play different roles. Implications of the findings are discussed in light of theories of figurative language processing and hemispheric functions.
AB - Although the left hemisphere is believed to handle major language functions, the role of the right hemisphere in language comprehension remains controversial. Recently researchers have investigated hemispheric language processing with figurative language materials (e.g., metaphors, jokes, and idioms). The current study capitalizes on the pervasiveness and distinct features of Chinese idioms to examine the brain mechanism of figurative language processing. Native Chinese speakers performed a non-semantic task while reading opaque idioms, transparent idioms, and non-idiomatic literal phrases. Whole-brain analyses indicated strong activations for all three conditions in an overlapping brain network that includes the bilateral inferior/middle frontal gyrus and the temporo-parietal and occipital-temporal regions. The two idiom conditions elicited additional activations in the right superior parietal lobule and right precuneus. Item-based modulation analyses further demonstrated that activation amplitudes in the right angular gyrus, right superior parietal lobule and right precuneus, as well as left inferior temporo-occipital cortex, are negatively correlated with the semantic transparency of the idioms. These results suggest that both hemispheres are involved in idiom processing but they play different roles. Implications of the findings are discussed in light of theories of figurative language processing and hemispheric functions.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.04.029
DO - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.04.029
M3 - Article
C2 - 27143223
AN - SCOPUS:84966397451
VL - 87
SP - 12
EP - 24
JO - Neuropsychologia
JF - Neuropsychologia
SN - 0028-3932
ER -