The Neural Substrates Underlying the Implementation of Phonological Rule in Lexical Tone Production: An fMRI Study of the Tone 3 Sandhi Phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese.

ABSTRACT: This study examined the neural substrates underlying the implementation of phonological rule in lexical tone by the Tone 3 sandhi phenomenon in Mandarin Chinese. Tone 3 sandhi is traditionally described as the substitution of Tone 3 with Tone 2 when followed by another Tone 3 (33 →23) during speech production. Tone 3 sandhi enables the examination of tone processing in the phonological level with the least involvement of segments. Using the fMRI technique, we measured brain activations corresponding to the monosyllable and disyllable sequences of the four Chinese lexical tones, while manipulating the requirement on overt oral response. The application of Tone 3 sandhi to disyllable sequence of Tone 3 was confirmed by our behavioral results. Larger brain responses to overtly produced disyll

SUBMITTER: Chang CH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4959711 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature