Neural substrates of Hanja (Logogram) and Hangul (Phonogram) character readings by functional magnetic resonance imaging

The two basic scripts of the Korean writing system, Hanja (the logography of the traditional Korean character) and Hangul (the more newer Korean alphabet), have been used together since the 14th century. While Hanja character has its own morphemic base, Hangul being purely phonemic without morphemic...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Korean medical science 2014, 29(10), 193, pp.1416-1424
Main Authors: Cho, Zang-Hee, Kim, Nambeom, Bae, Sungbong, Chi, Je-Geun, Park, Chan-Woong, Ogawa, Seiji, Kim, Young-Bo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping - methods
Brain Waves - physiology
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Male
Neurolinguistic Programming
Original
Recognition (Psychology) - physiology
Writing
의학일반
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Summary:The two basic scripts of the Korean writing system, Hanja (the logography of the traditional Korean character) and Hangul (the more newer Korean alphabet), have been used together since the 14th century. While Hanja character has its own morphemic base, Hangul being purely phonemic without morphemic base. These two, therefore, have substantially different outcomes as a language as well as different neural responses. Based on these linguistic differences between Hanja and Hangul, we have launched two studies; first was to find differences in cortical activation when it is stimulated by Hanja and Hangul reading to support the much discussed dual-route hypothesis of logographic and phonological routes in the brain by fMRI (Experiment 1). The second objective was to evaluate how Hanja and Hangul affect comprehension, therefore, recognition memory, specifically the effects of semantic transparency and morphemic clarity on memory consolidation and then related cortical activations, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) (Experiment 2). The first fMRI experiment indicated relatively large areas of the brain are activated by Hanja reading compared to Hangul reading. The second experiment, the recognition memory study, revealed two findings, that is there is only a small difference in recognition memory for semantic transparency, while for the morphemic clarity was much larger between Hanja and Hangul. That is the morphemic clarity has significantly more effect than semantic transparency on recognition memory when studies by fMRI in correlation with behavioral study.
ISSN:1011-8934
1598-6357
DOI:10.3346/jkms.2014.29.10.1416