Chinese phonological processing for Japanese in Chinese-Japanese bilinguals: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Writing and reading in a second language (L2) is a difficult processing that involves reciprocation between the native language (L1) and second language. In older to investigate the fundamental mechanisms, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to visualize Japanese-Chinese bilinguals´ brain activity in phonological processing of Chinese and Japanese words. We utilized fMRI to investigate brain activations in processing Japanese phonological and font size by visual judgment tasks in 15 Japanese subjects. Different activation patterns were observed between phonological and font size judgment processing. We conclude that a group of neural substrates was different for the Chinese-Japanese second language phonological processing.