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September 25, 2005
Brain and Language Question 3
In Japanese, kana is sound based like English is and there are symbols that correspond to syllables. Kanji is ideographic and each symbol corresponds to a word. Damage to the left hemisphere would impair someone's ability to read kana because the left hemisphere of the brain is the "verbal hemisphere" and is where we process sounds that we hear. Someone with damage to this part of their brain probably would not be able to put together the sounds that they saw on the paper since kana is made up of syllables. Damage to the right hemisphere of the brain would impair someone's ability to read kanji because the right side of our brain specializes in mathematics, logic, facial recognition, and drawing. This is the more visual side of our brain and if since kanji is made up of pictures, someone with damage to this side of the brain might not be able to put a symbol together with an actual picture of an object.
Posted by lcismardin at September 25, 2005 07:37 PM