Lexical Tone Perception in Tone language--a fMRI Study

Lexical Tone Perception in Tone Language speakers--a fMRI Study

Tone language refers to a language that uses fixed pitch pattern to distinguish words (Yip, 2002). Understanding the functional anatomy of the brain during lexical tone processing will provide useful hints for an effective intervention strategy such as brain stimulation. The present study investigate the cortical organisation of the brain in lexical tone perception of Cantonese speakers by the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Neuroimaging; Lexical Tone; Chinese; Speech Perception
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: Normal hearing group

Detailed Description

Tone language refers to a language that uses fixed pitch pattern to distinguish words (Yip, 2002). Cantonese is one of the main tone languages spoken by over 70 million around the world (Li et al.,1995; Adolfsson, 2010). Individuals with significant hearing impairment often present great difficulty in tone perception, affecting their understanding of words and hence, hamper their overall communication. The poor tone perception persists even with intensive auditory training coupled with advanced hearing technology such as cochlear implants.

Understanding the functional anatomy of the brain during lexical tone processing will provide useful hints for an effective intervention strategy such as brain stimulation. Researchers have been investigating the neural basis for tone perception in the past decades but failing to come to a consensus on the location of the brain that is responsible for lexical tone processing. The discrepant results may be due to the fact of the differences in subject selection (animals, healthy adults, brain-injured patients, tonal-language and non-tonal language speakers), testing materials and tasks employed (linguistic versus non-linguistic stimuli; dichotic listening versus discrimination and identification tasks) and outcome measurements (performance score, reaction time, accuracy rate, PET scan and fMRI).

Cortical organization, or brain mapping, refers to functional anatomy of the brain. The present study is the first study to systematically investigate the cortical organization of the brain in lexical tone perception of Cantonese speakers by the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). A comprehensive set of auditory stimuli specifically for investigating the different levels of lexical tone processing will be constructed. Native Cantonese speakers with normal hearing were recruited. They underwent fMRI while listening to the carefully designed auditory stimuli.

Once the cortical organization of lexical tone processing in Cantonese is identified, the valuable findings could be applied in further brain intervention procedures to tackle the long lasting, unresolved tone perception difficulty encountered by people with hearing impairment or other related disorders.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 29

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• China
  • Hong Kong
    • Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
      • Prince of Wales Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 60 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Recruitment via University mass mail They were paid for their participations.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• native Cantonese speaker
• right-handed
• normal hearing
• no reported of neurological disorder

Exclusion Criteria:

• neurological disorder
• left-handed
• hearing impairment

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Other
• Time Perspectives: Other

Number of groups / cohorts

1

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Normal hearing group; Right-handed, normal hearing, no reported neurological disorders	Other: Normal hearing group; Observational

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Activation areas in the brain that are responsible for lexical tone perception	To identify the activation area(s) in the brain that are responsible for lexical tone perception in normal hearing participants	2015-2019

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Accuracy rate	Accuracy rate of passive listening task	2015-2019
Reaction Time	reaction time of passive listening task	2015-2019

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Collaborators: Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Yuet Sheung Lee, Professor, Chinese University of Hong Kong

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): February 12, 2017
• Primary Completion (Actual): February 25, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): September 30, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: October 19, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 19, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): October 22, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): January 27, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 24, 2020
• Last Verified: January 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Chinese; Neuroimaging; Speech Perception; Lexical Tone
• Other Study ID Numbers: Lexical tone perception(fMRI)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: Undecided

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No