Abstract：
There is a growing interest in imaging understudied orthographies to unravel their neuronal correlates and their implications for existing computational and neuroanatomical models. Here, we review current brain mapping literature about Arabic words. We first offer a succinct description of some unique linguistic features of Arabic that challenge current cognitive models of reading. We then appraise the existing functional neuroimaging studies that investigated written Arabic word processing. Our review revealed that (1) Arabic is still understudied, (2) the most investigated features concerned the effects of vowelling and diglossia in Arabic reading, (3) findings were not always discussed in the light of existing reading models such as the dual route cascaded, the triangle, and the connectionist dual process models, and (4) current evidence is unreliable when it comes to the exact neuronal pathways that sustain Arabic word processing. Overall, despite the fact that Arabic has some unique linguistic features that challenge and ultimately enrich current reading models, the existing functional neuroimaging literature falls short of offering a reliable evidence about brain networks of Arabic reading. We conclude by highlighting the need for more systematic studies of the linguistic features of Arabic to build theoretical and neuroanatomical models that are concurrently specific and general.
摘要：
对未研究的正字法进行成像以解开其神经元相关性及其对现有计算和神经解剖模型的影响越来越感兴趣。这里,我们回顾了当前有关阿拉伯语单词的大脑作图文献。我们首先简要描述了阿拉伯语的一些独特语言特征，这些特征挑战了当前的阅读认知模式。然后，我们评估了现有的功能性神经影像学研究，这些研究调查了书面阿拉伯语文字处理。我们的审查显示，（1）阿拉伯语仍未得到充分研究，（2）研究最多的特征涉及阿拉伯语阅读中元音和双音的影响，(3)根据现有的阅读模型，如双路级联，三角形,和连接主义双重过程模型，和（4）当前的证据是不可靠的，当它涉及到确切的神经元通路，维持阿拉伯语文字处理。总的来说,尽管阿拉伯语具有一些独特的语言特点，挑战并最终丰富了当前的阅读模式，现有的功能性神经影像学文献未能提供有关阿拉伯语阅读的大脑网络的可靠证据.最后，我们强调需要对阿拉伯语的语言特征进行更系统的研究，以建立同时具有特异性和普遍性的理论和神经解剖学模型。
