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Previous neuroimaging studies used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to clarify the different brain activities when bilingual speaker comprehend their first language (Ll) compared with their second language (L2). Many studies show the different activation patterns of alphabetic language and logographic language. It is unclear that if bilinguals`Ll and L2 language are all logographic language (e.g. Chinese and Japanese), whether Japanese (L2) processing is different from Chinese (Ll) for bilinguals- brain activity. To study the underlying mechanisms, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to visualize Chinese-Japanese bilinguals- brain activity in both of Chinese character and Japanese Kanji. Precuneus were activated by morphology judgment in Chinese word contrast with Japanese word. The results with Chinese and Japanese logographs suggested precuneus were played an important role in Chinese morphology processing for Chinese-Japanese bilingual speakers.

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) or positron emission tomography (PET), much knowledge has been gained in understanding how the brain is activated during controlled experiments of language tasks in alphabetic subjects and in Chinese subjects. While previous studies have compared performance between alphabetic and Chinese subjects, few data were about Japanese-speaking individuals. In this study, we used fMRI to investigate brain activations in processing Japanese phonological and orthographic by visual tasks in six Japanese subjects. Different activation patterns were observed between phonological and orthographic processing. We conclude that constellation of neural substrates was different for phonological processing.