Neural Mechanisms of English Reading in Chinese Native Speakers

This study employed fNIRS and tDCS techniques to examine brain activation in specific regions during English word reading in Chinese participants, as well as the changes in brain activation following tDCS stimulation over these regions. fNIRS data were preprocessed using the Homer2 software package (Huppert et al., 2009), following the processing pipeline and parameter settings described in Brigadoi et al. (2014). For each participant, raw optical intensity data were first converted into changes in optical density (OD).

Motion artifact identification and correction were then applied to the OD data. A band-pass filter with cutoff frequencies of 0.01–0.5 Hz was used to reduce slow drifts and high-frequency noise (Brigadoi et al., 2014; Cui et al., 2011). After filtering, the OD data were converted into HbO and HbR concentration data using the Beer–Lambert law.