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Published online: 31 January 2007 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2007.070131-4
Dyslexia in Chinese: Thinking in tongues
Kaspar Mossman
Abstract
Different disorders in the brain give rise to dyslexia of Chinese and English speakers
Original article citation
et al. Biological abnormality of impaired reading is constrained by culture. Nature 431, 71–76 (2004).Introduction
© (2004) Nature
In alphabetic scripts, such as English, groups of letters correspond to the sounds made when the language is spoken. In Chinese text, however, meanings are conveyed by characters. These do not necessarily dictate the sounds of the words they comprise. Using magnetic resonance imaging, Wai Ting Siok of the University of Hong Kong and co-workers1 explored how this difference manifests itself in the brains of dyslexic Chinese-speaking children.
Scientists have long known that the troubles of English-speaking dyslexics arise from a deficiency in the temporoparietal region of the brain, which maps the shapes of letters to the sounds they represent. Siok and colleagues asked a group of 16 Chinese children, normal and dyslexic, to identify pairs of characters with similar sounds. In normal children this task induced intense activity in the left middle frontal gyrus, rather than the temporoparietal region. Dyslexic children showed no such activity.
The authors also observed a deficit in the left fusiform gyrus in dyslexic children when asked to identify fake characters. This region contains neural circuits that link visual symbols directly to meaning. The researchers conclude that dyslexia in speakers of Chinese and English arise from different biological causes.
References
- Siok, W. T. et al. Biological abnormality of impaired reading is constrained by culture. Nature 431, 71–76 (2004). | Article | PubMed | ChemPort |
