Brain regions associated with Chinese reading: a multiple-task functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Reading Chinese characters requires the dynamic integration of orthographic, phonological, and semantic components. This may engage distributed cortical systems specific to each of the linguistic elements. One important question to explore is whether a general reading-related network exists that not only supports multiple linguistic processes but also reuses pre-existing perceptual and control circuits to subserve multi-level language processing. In this study, we re-analyzed a previously published dataset using a within-participant multi-task functional magnetic resonance imaging design in 22 children and 20 adults, including lexical decision, homophone judgement, and semantic judgement tasks. Conjunction analyses revealed a left-lateralized network consistently activated across tasks, encompassing the left inferior frontal gyrus (BAs 44/45/47), middle frontal gyrus (BAs 9/46), pre-supplementary motor area, bilateral insula, left fusiform area (BA 37), and middle/inferior occipital gyrus (BAs 18/19). Notably, no significant group differences were observed, indicating the early formation of this integrative neural network. Functionally, the occipitotemporal regions formed a perceptual-orthographic module supporting visual structural analysis; the left frontal regions and pre-supplementary motor area implemented sequential integration and executive control; and the bilateral insula dynamically allocated cognitive resources. The convergence and stability of this network across tasks and age groups suggest it may constitute a supra-reading network-a higher-order, domain-general architecture that transcends reading per se, flexibly reusing circuits originally supporting perception, sequencing, and cognitive control to coordinate multi-level linguistic integration. Together, these findings provide a unified and developmentally adaptive neural framework for reading in a morpho-syllabic language, providing neuroscience insights for reading development and literacy education.