Semantic judgment in Uygur character:an fMRI study

Objective To study the increasement of MRI signals in the functional cortical regions related to Uygur and functional lateralization using blood-oxygen dependent functional MRI (BOLD-fMRI )technique.Method This study included 29 right-handed human volunteers,14 males and 15 females,aged from 18 to 28 years old.The functional images of brain were acquired with a PHILIPS Achieva nova dual 1.5 MRI.All data were analyzed on single-subject level and group level using SPM5.Results Several cortical and regions were activated.The activated areas included:bilateral middle/inferior frontal gyrus,precentral gyms and fusiform gyrus,right superior temporal gyrus,left middle temporal gyrus,left superior/inferiorparietal lobule,left precuneus,right lingual gyrus,bilateral occipital middle gyms.The activation volume in left hemisphere was larger than that in right hemisphere.Conclusions Many areas of cortex and subcortex are involved in Uygur character semantic judgment.fMRI is a good method to find these areas.Uygur task demonstrates left cerebral dominance. Key words: The Uygur nationality; fMRI; Language; Semantic