Hemispheric processing of Chinese hànzì and English words: A lateralized lexical decision study

We presented orthographic English words or Chinese logographic hànzì primes to either the left or right visual fields followed by a semantically related target to the opposite visual field. Chinese hànzì primed English words in both hemispheres but English required right-hemisphere involvement to prime hànzì symbols. This study suggests that Chinese hànzì and English word translation recruits both hemispheres. Our results are consistent with the conclusion that the two cortical hemispheres maintain parallel, but different, representations of hànzì, just as has been shown with English words.