Kanji Perception and Brain Function

Abstract

The semantic processing involved in the visual perception of Chinese characters (Kanji) was studied using electroencephalograms. Thirty concrete Kanji, 30 absolute Kanji and a closed circle were used in a tachistoscopic presentation, wherein one character or a circle was displayed at random for 35 ms, and visual evoked potentials were recorded. The test subjects were11 native Japanese speakers. The concrete Kanji were familiar objects and highly imaginable characters such as a dog, a cat, a cow, etc. The absolute Kanji were familiar Kanji but represented concepts that are difficult to imagine, such as nothing, what, existing, et cetera. P100, N160, P230, and N320 were noted on the evoked potentials. The bilateral posterior temporal lobes and the bilateral occipital lobes were activated for the concrete Kanji at approximately 320ms after the onset of the visual stimuli (P<0.001 by multiple analysis of variance).