This fMRI-study compared cerebral processing of two completely different languages:
the lexical writing of German language and the Korean syllable writing. Korean has
not developed evolutionary like most other languages, but scientifically. Comparing
activities between both writing systems, in Korean we found an increased activation
of the phonological loop (BA 45/BA 6, BA 21/BA 22) as well as in BA 7 and BA 40. In
German increased activation in the frontal lobe (BA 10) and in the occipital lobe
(BA 18) was found. These activations have recently been found to be used by working
memory to match visual pattern. As a consequence, we argued that recognition of visual
patterns is predominant while reading German words whereas Korean writing is processed
more rhythmic-phonologically.
