Neural Correlates of Morphological Processing: Evidence from Chinese

Morphological decomposition is an important part of complex word processing. In Chinese, this requires a comprehensive consideration of phonological, orthographic and morphemic information. The left inferior frontal gyrus (L-IFG) has been implicated in this process in alphabetic languages. However, it is unclear whether the neural mechanisms underlying morphological processing in alphabetic languages would be the same in Chinese, a logographic language. To investigate the neural basis of morphological processing in Chinese compound words, an fMRI experiment was conducted using an explicit auditory morphological judgment task. Results showed the L-IFG to be a core area in Chinese morphological processing, consistent with research in alphabetic languages. Additionally, a broad network consisting of the L-MTG, the bilateral STG and the L-FG that taps phonological, orthographic, and semantic information was found to be involved. These results provide evidence that the L-IFG plays an important role in morphological processing even in languages that are typologically different.