CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Indian J Radiol Imaging 2014; 24(01): 44-50
DOI: 10.4103/0971-3026.130691
fMRI-MINI SYMPOSIA

Reading in Devanagari: Insights from functional neuroimaging

Nandini Chatterjee Singh
National Brain Research Centre, NH-8, Nainwal Mode, Manesar, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
,
Chaitra Rao
National Brain Research Centre, NH-8, Nainwal Mode, Manesar, Gurgaon, Haryana, India
› Institutsangaben

Abstract

Objectives: The current study used functional MRI (fMRI) to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the neural network underlying visual word recognition in Hindi/Devanagari, an alphasyllabic - partly alphabetic and partly syllabic Indian writing system on which little research has hitherto been carried out. Materials and Methods: Sixteen (5F, 11M) neurologically healthy, native Hindi/Devanagari readers aged 21 to 50 named aloud 240 Devanagari words which were either visually linear - had no diacritics or consonant ligatures above or below central plane of text, e.g. फल, वाहन, or nonlinear - had at least one diacritic and/or ligature, e.g. फूल, किरण, and which further included 120 words each of high and low frequency. Words were presented in alternating high and low frequency blocks of 10 words each at 2s/word in a block design, with linear and nonlinear words in separate runs. Word reading accuracy was manually coded, while fMRI images were acquired on a 3T scanner with an 8-channel head-coil, using a T2FNx01-weighted EPI sequence (TR/TE = 2s/35ms). Results: After ensuring high word naming accuracy (M = 97.6%, SD = 2.3), fMRI data analyses (at FDR P < 0.005) revealed that reading Devanagari words elicited robust activations in bilateral occipito-temporal, inferior frontal and precentral regions as well as both cerebellar hemispheres. Other common areas of activation included left inferior parietal and right superior temporal cortices. Primary differences seen between nonlinear and linear word reading networks were in the right temporal areas and cerebellum. Conclusion: Distinct from alphabetic scripts, which are linear in their spatial organization, and recruit a primarily left-lateralized network for word reading, our results revealed a bilateral reading network for Devanagari. We attribute the additional activations in Devanagari to increased visual processing demands arising from the complex visuospatial arrangement of symbols in this ancient script.



Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
02. August 2021

© 2014. Indian Radiological Association. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Thieme Medical and Scientific Publishers Private Ltd.
A-12, Second Floor, Sector -2, NOIDA -201301, India

 
  • References

  • 1 Dehaene S, Cohen L. Cultural recycling of cortical maps. Neuron 2007;56:384-98.
  • 2 Perfetti CA, Liu Y. Orthography to phonology and meaning: Comparisons across and within writing systems. Read Writ 2005;18:193-210.
  • 3 Bolger DJ, Perfetti CA, Schneider W. Cross-cultural effect on the brain revisited: Universal structures plus writing system variation. Hum Brain Mapp 2005;25:92-104.
  • 4 Tan LH, Laird A, Li K, Fox PT. Neuroanatomical correlates of phonological processing of Chinese characters and alphabetic words: A meta-analysis. Hum Brain Mapp 2005;25:83-91.
  • 5 Moore CJ, Price CJ. Three distinct ventral occipitotemporal regions for reading and object naming. Neuroimage 1999;10:181-92.
  • 6 Ino T, Nakai R, Azuma T, Kimura T, Fukuyama H. Recognition and reading aloud of Kana and Kanji words: An fMRI study. Brain Res Bull 2009;78:232-9.
  • 7 McCandliss BD, Cohen L, Dehaene S. The visual word form area: expertise for reading in the fusiform gyrus. Trends Cogn Sci 2003;7:293-9.
  • 8 Tan LH, Spinks JA, Feng CM, Siok WT, Perfetti CA, Xiong J, et al. Neural systems of second language reading are shaped by native language. Hum Brain Mapp 2003;18:158-66.
  • 9 Perfetti CA, Liu Y, Fiez J, Nelson J, Bolger DJ. Reading in two writing systems: Accomodation and assimilation of the brain′s reading network. Biling (Camb Engl) 2007;10:131-46.
  • 10 Yoon HW, Cho K, Chung J, Park HW. Neural mechanisms of Korean word reading: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study. Neurosci Lett 2005;373:206-11.
  • 11 Nakamura K, Dehaene S, Jobert A, Bihan DL, Kouider S. Subliminal convergence of Kanji and Kana words: Further evidence for functional parcellation of the posterior temporal cortex in visual word perception. J Cogn Neurosci 2005;17:954-68.
  • 12 Bright W. A matter of typology: Alphasyllabaries and abugidas. Stud Linguist Sci 2000;30:63-71.
  • 13 Paul LM, Simons GF, Fennig CD, editors. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 17 th ed. Dallas, USA: SIL International. Retrieved from: http://www.ethnologue.com.
  • 14 Gupta A, Vaid J, Garg A. Word-nonword reading in Hindi language by developmentally dyslexic children. Poster presented at the 38 th annual meeting of the Psychonomic Society, Philadelphia: USA; November 1997.
  • 15 Nehru R, Garg A. A cross-linguistic study of biliterate developmental dyslexia. Paper presented at the 5 th annual conference of the Indian Academy of Neurology, Madras: India; September 1997.
  • 16 Vaid J, Gupta A. Exploring word recognition in a semi-alphabetic script: The case of Devanagari. Brain Lang 2002;81:679-90.
  • 17 Das T, Kumar U, Bapi RS, Padakannaya P, Singh NC. Neural representation of an alphasyllabary- The story of Devanagari. Curr Sci 2009;97:1033-8.
  • 18 Price CJ. The anatomy of language: Contributions from functional neuroimaging. J Anat 2000;197:335-59.
  • 19 Kumar U, Das T, Bapi RS, Padakannaya P, Joshi RM, Singh NC. Reading different orthographies: An fMRI study of phrase reading in Hindi-English bilinguals. Read Writ 2009.
  • 20 Poldrack RA, Desmond JA, Glover GH, Gabrieli JD. The neural basis of visual skill learning: An fMRI study of mirror reading. Cereb Cortex 1998;8;1-10.
  • 21 Das T, Bapi RS, Padakannaya P, Singh NC. Cortical network for reading linear words in an alphasyllabary. Read Writ 2011a; 24:697-707.
  • 22 Das T, Padakannaya P, Pugh KR, Singh NC. Neuroimaging reveals dual routes to reading in simultaneous proficient readers of two orthographies. Neuroimage 2011b; 54:1476-87.
  • 23 Friston KJ, Frith CD, Frackowiak RS, Turner R. Characterizing dynamic brain responses with fMRI: A multivariate approach. Neuroimage 1995;2:166-72.
  • 24 Friston KJ, Holmes AP, Worsley KJ, Poline JB, Frith CD, Frackowiak RS. Statistical parametric maps in functional imaging: A general linear approach. Hum Brain Mapp 1995;4:189-210.
  • 25 Penny WD, Holmes AP, Friston KJ. Random effects analysis. In: Frackowiak RS, Friston KJ, Frith CD, Dolan R, Price CJ, Zeki S, et al., editors. Human brain function. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2003.
  • 26 Guenther FH, Ghosh SS, Tourville JA. Neural modeling and imaging of the cortical interactions underlying syllable production. Brain Lang 2006;96:280-301.
  • 27 Petersen SE, Fox PT, Posner M, Mintun M, Raichle ME. Positron emission tomographic studies of the cortical anatomy of single-word processing. Nature 1988;331:585-9.
  • 28 Vigneau M, Beaucousin V, Hervé PY, Jobard G, Petit L, Crivello F, et al. What is right-hemisphere contribution to phonological, lexico-semantic, and sentence processing? Insights from a meta-analysis. Neuroimage 2011;54:577-93.
  • 29 Jobard G, Crivello F, Tzourio-Mazoyer N. Evaluation of the dual route theory of reading: A metanalysis of 35 neuroimaging studies. Neuroimage 2003;20:693-712.
  • 30 Lee KM. Functional MRI comparison between reading ideographic and phonographic scripts of one language. Brain Lang 2004;91:245-51.
  • 31 Wu CY, Ho MH, Chen SH. A meta-analysis of fMRI studies on Chinese orthographic, phonological, and semantic processing. Neuroimage 2012;63:381-91.
  • 32 Kuo WJ, Yeh TC, Duann JR, Wu YT, Ho LT, Hung D, et al. A left-lateralized network for reading Chinese words: A 3T fMRI study. Neuroreport 2001;12:3997-4001.
  • 33 Booth JR, Wood L, Lu D, Houk JC, Bitan T. The role of the basal ganglia and cerebellum in language processing. Brain Res 2007;1133:136-44.
  • 34 Chen SH, Desmond JE. Cerebrocerebellar networks during articulatory rehearsal and verbal working memory tasks. Neuroimage 2005a; 24:332-8.
  • 35 Rao C, Mathur A, Singh NC. ′Cost in transliteration′: The neurocognitive processing of Romanized writing. Brain Lang 2013;124:205-12.