Common Neural System for Sentence and Picture Comprehension Across Languages: A Chinese-Japanese Bilingual Study.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Linguistics

Background:

• While word-level semantic representations are known across languages, sentence-level systems remain unclear.
• Investigating a universal sentence comprehension system is crucial for understanding human cognition.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine if a common brain system exists for processing sentence meaning across different languages and modalities.
• To explore the neural basis of cross-lingual and cross-modal sentence comprehension.

Main Methods:

• Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to study Chinese-Japanese bilinguals (n=32).
• Multi-voxel pattern analysis (MVPA) classified semantic relationships (coherent/incoherent) in written sentences (Chinese, Japanese) and pictures.
• Whole-brain searchlight analysis identified brain regions involved in cross-lingual and cross-modal semantic processing.

Main Results:

• Behavioral data showed no significant differences in accuracy or response times across modalities.
• fMRI MVPA achieved significant above-chance classification of semantic relationships between Chinese and Japanese sentences in the left inferior parietal and frontal gyri.
• Classification accuracy was also significant between Japanese sentences and pictures in the left inferior parietal regions.

Conclusions:

• A common meaning system for sentence processing exists across languages and modalities.
• The left inferior parietal gyrus plays a critical role in this universal semantic processing system.