The Japanese journal of neuropsychology

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ArticleTitle	Laterality difference during processing single Kanji characters -The effects of Kanji attributes, structure of Kanji and On-or Kun-reading dominance-
Language	J
AuthorList	Atsuko Nakagawa
Affiliation	School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Nagoya City University
Publication	Japanese Journal of Neuropsychology: 18 (2), 120-128, 2002
Received	Mar 15, 2001
Accepted	Jan 18, 2002
Abstract	A divided visual field experiment was conducted with normal subjects. The target stimuli were single Kanji characters manipulated by two Kanji attributes, the On-reading or Kun-reading dominance and Tantai (i.e. element integration not required), or non-Tantai (i.e. element integration required) (Shirakawa, 1994). The results supported the hypothesis that the processing of single Kanji such as“犬”and“女”, which are Kun-reading dominant and Tantai may be left hemisphere dominant. The findings also suggest that both single Kanji words such as“犬”and Kanji Compound words may be processed in the same brain area as the processing of visual word forms. This research stems from a case study report from Higuchi et al. (1996) who investigated the case of alexia of single Kanji characters caused by multiple sclerosis. Higuchi et al. (1996) demonstrated that when presenting single Kanji characters the patient could only pronounce the Japanese reading of a component element of that Kanji (Kun-reading). However, when shown the same Kanji character in a two-character compound, the patient was able to pronounce the compound with its respective Chinese readings (On-reading).
Keywords	Kanji, lateralization, On-Kun