Cerebral Activation Patterns of fMRI in Uygur-Chinese Bilinguals
Lixia Yang · Journal of Clinical Radiology · 2010
Objective To determine the cerebral activation patterns in Uygur-Chinese bilinguals.Materials and Methods Eighteen native Uygur bilinguists who had acquired the second language before 6 years old,performed semantic tasks in Chinese(secondary language,L2),and 19 native Uygur bilinguists performed semantic tasks in Uygur words(primary language,L1).Echo-planar fMRI were underwent at 1.5 T.Individual and group functional datasets were analyzed using Statistical Parametric Mapping software and overlaid on T1-weighted anatomic images.Results The distinct activation regions of L1 located in the Left middle temporal gyrus,right superior temporal gyrus.The bilateral superior frontal gyr,right medial frontal gyri,right superior and inferior parietal lobules were induced by only L2 stimulation.Activation areas of both L1 and L2 language tasks were bigger in left cerebral hemisphere than in right cerebral hemisphere.Conclusion The neural networks utilized for semantic language processing in the nonnative language may not be as same as those in the primary language.Both two language tasks demonstrate left cerebral dominance.There was no difference between Uygur and Chinese tasks in left hemispheric lateralization.