ISSN 0439-755X
CN 11-1911/B
主办:中国心理学会
   中国科学院心理研究所
出版:科学出版社

心理学报 ›› 2025, Vol. 57 ›› Issue (7): 1127-1138.doi: 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2025.1127 cstr: 32110.14.2025.1127

• 研究报告 • 上一篇    下一篇

顶中区N200是中文单字字形识别的神经标识

胡伟1, 张豹2, 贾小飞3, 陈辉贤4, 袁杰5, 方卓6, 张学新7()   

  1. 1.教育部人文社会科学重点研究基地天津师范大学心理与行为研究院; 天津师范大学心理学部, 天津 300387;
    2.广州大学心理系, 广州 510006;
    3.曲阜师范大学心理学系, 山东 曲阜 273165;
    4.汕头大学高等教育研究所, 广东 汕头 515041;
    5.华南师范大学心理学院, 广州 510631;
    6.渥太华大学心理学系, 渥太华 K1N6N5, 加拿大;
    7.复旦大学心理系, 上海 200433
  • 收稿日期:2024-09-26 发布日期:2025-04-24 出版日期:2025-07-25
  • 通讯作者: 张学新, E-mail: xuexinzhang@fudan.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    教育部“春晖计划”项目(HZKY20220601)

The centro-parietal N200: A neural marker for orthographical processing in visual Chinese one-character word recognition

HU Wei1, ZHANG Bao2, JIA Xiaofei3, CHEN Huixian4, YUAN Jie5, FANG Zhuo6, ZHANG John Xuexin7()   

  1. 1. Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China;
    2. Department of Psychology, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou 510006, China;
    3. Department of Psychology, Qufu Normal University, Qufu 273165, China;
    4. Institute for Higher Education, Shantou University, Shantou 515041, China;
    5. School of Psychology, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China;
    6. School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa K1N6N5, Canada;
    7. Department of Psychology, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
  • Received:2024-09-26 Online:2025-04-24 Published:2025-07-25

摘要:

中文视觉词汇加工近年来的一个重要发现是, 中文双字词识别诱发了一个反映词形加工的顶中区N200脑电成分, 该成分呈现了较为少见的重复增强效应。双字词的词形加工是一个复杂过程, 不仅包含对两个单字字形信息的加工, 还有两个单字间的相对位置关系信息。要进一步理解N200对应的字形加工过程, 需要回应一个关键问题, N200是否与单字的字形加工有关。本文以3个实验系统研究了在双字词N200这一时间段内单字诱发的脑电反应, 发现与双字词一样, 单字在刺激呈现后200 ms也诱发了清晰的顶中区N200反应, 且该效应在重复启动时出现增强效应。N200的幅度在双字条件下高于单字, 在真字条件下高于假字、非字, 说明该成分反映了从部件到单字, 从单字到双字的整合加工, 是中文单字字形识别的神经标识, 为揭示中文词汇识别的时间进程提供了一个关键线索。

关键词: 顶中区N200, 中文, 单字, 字形加工, 词汇识别

Abstract:

Over the last ten years, research on event-related potential has consistently demonstrated that the detection of visual Chinese disyllabic words involves a centro-parietal N200 component linked to orthographical processing. It is uncertain, though, if this component is present for the identification of individual characters. This investigation examined whether Chinese one-character words activate the centro-parietal N200 similarly to two-character words to test whether this component only reflexs the relative position information of two-character words. If the answer is negative, it indicates that the N200 primarily encodes word-form information, such as the spatial positional relationship between characters. If the answer is positive, it suggests that the N200 at least partially reflects the processing of word level orthographic information.

With three experiments, the present paper explored the brain ERP response induced by one-character Chinese words. In Experiment 1, the ERP potentials induced by one-character and two-character Chinese words were compared under separate or mixed presentation conditions with a semantic judgement task, in which participants had to judge whether the presented stimulus was the name of an animal or a plant. In Experiment 2, a lexical decision task, in which participants had to judge whether the presented character was real or pseudo, was employed to determine if N200 is enhanced at the repetitive presentation condition for one-character Chinese words. Non-word character was also manipulated to further explore the nature of N200 effect in Experiment 3.

Results showed that Chinese one-character words also elicited a clear N200 ERP component just like two-character words do. Moreover, the N200 enhancement effect in the condition of repetition priming was also found, and effect for real words was significantly greater than that for pseudo- and non-word. This revealed that around 200 milliseconds after the presentation of a one-character Chinese word, N200 can already distinguish whether a specific positional relationship of radicals has a pre-exiting representation in the brain, i.e., whether it is a real character. This means that real words have already been differentiated from pseudo-word and non-word at this stage.

These findings suggest that the centro-parietal N200 component reflects the process of integrating visual features into single characters, acting as a neural marker for the orthographic processing of Chinese one-character words. This indicates that the N200 plays a crucial role in identifying and distinguishing between real-, pseudo- and non-word, providing insight into how the brain integrates visual information during early stages of reading. Furthermore, this discovery offers a new perspective for understanding the temporal dynamics involved in Chinese lexical recognition and the underlying cognitive mechanisms involved in processing written language.

Key words: centro-parietal N200, Chinese, one-character words, orthography, word recognition

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