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| Different brain pathways in processing Chinese and English by Primary Three Hong Kong pupils based on electroencep-halography coherence analysis |
| FUNG Chinwan，WONG Kawai，CHAH Huoyen，CHAN Walun，KWAN Tingfai，TO Choyee |
| 1. Division of Medical Physics，Department of Medicine，The University of Hong Kong，Hong Kong，China；2. Department of Psychiatry，The University of Hong Kong，Hong Kong，China；3. Depart-ment of Electrical and Electronic Engineering，The University of Hong Kong，Hong Kong，China；4. The Chinese University of Hong Kong，Hong Kong，China；5. The University of Michigan，Ann Arbor，MI 48109，USA |
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Abstract A 128-channel electroencephalography（EEG）system was employed to record the electrical brain signals reaching the scalp of test subjects in response to reading mother tongue（Chinese）and second-language（English）sentences. Half of these test sentences were grammatically correct，while the other half contained syntactical errors. We analysed the coherence in various EEG frequency bands（δ，θ，α，β，γ）among all possible pairs of scalp electrode sites. Since it is well-known that the rest state of the brain，whether eyes open or closed，has an abundance of activities，we studied the difference in coherence（rather than the absolute value）of a subject as he/she reads Chinese and English sentences. We analysed the difference in“cross-talk”between ten different brain regions as the subject responded to the visual stimuli by simplifying the raw difference coherence data into“difference coherence diagrams”pertaining to specific conditions（i. e. correct or incorrect grammar）. We have found，from the responses of 22 Primary Three pupils（mean age nine years），that Chinese syntactic processing is related to strong short-range EEG coherence within the frontal and occipital regions，while syntactic processing of English involved relatively more coherence between EEG signals recorded from the frontal and temporal regions. A gender difference was also found. Boys seemed to show a general left hemispheric preference for syntactic language processing. In particular，the left frontal region was a prominent EEG coherence focus. On the other hand，girls tended to use more bilateral regions for processing both Chinese and English syntax，and the parietal and right temporal regions seem to be particularly strong coherence foci.
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2013, Vol. 1 
