基于事件相关电位与功能性磁共振成像技术的中医语言研究

The research, which is based on the argument that "the presentation of thought must be through language", takes traditional Chinese medical and western medical languages as objects, and takes cognitive linguistics, psychology and neuroscience as standpoint, is seeking the cranial nerves evidence to prove the propositions of TCM specific thought. Traditional Chinese medical language is a language based on metaphorical cognition. Metaphor is not only a linguistic phenomenon, but also a cognitive or thinking mode. In this study we use event-related potential (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI) to collect the landmark EEG components produced by the subjects in understanding Chinese and Western medical languages, and to capture the brain magnetic and metabolic information which is generated by the cranial nerve activities in language tasks. We select the TCM corpus of the three levels of vocabulary, sentences and texts as the experimental groups and the corresponding Western medical corpus as the control groups. While in the terminology vocabulary experiments the working memory paradigm and the learning-re-recognition paradigm are used to explore the memory model of the two medical language. In the sentence experiment the tail phrase paradigm is used to explore the semantic integration process. And in the discourse experiment task reading paradigm is used to examine the language reasoning mode between traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine language.By comparing the differences between traditional Chinese medical group and Western medical group it will reveal the specific TCM cognitive mode contained in language. The introduction of ERP and fMRI to study TCM language will clarify the uniqueness of traditional Chinese medical thought from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience and turn the invisible event of TCM thinking into a well-known fact.

研究以“思维须通过语言来呈现”为依据，以中医、西医学语言为对象，从认知语言、心理、神经学的立场为中医特异性思维的命题寻求来自脑神经的证据。中医语言是一种基于隐喻认知的语言。隐喻是一种语言现象，更是一种认知或思维方式。研究应用事件相关电位（ERP）与功能性磁共振成像（fMRI），捕捉被试者理解中西医语言时标志性脑电成分，以及进行语言任务时其神经活动的脑磁和代谢信息。实验以中医词汇、句子、语篇三个层面的语料为实验组，以相应的西医语料为对照组，采用工作记忆范式、学习-再认范式等对比两种医学词汇的记忆模式；采用尾词范式探究两种医学句子的语义整合形式；采用语篇测试考察两种医学语言的推理差异。欲通过三个层面的组间差异揭示中医语言蕴含的特异性思维方式。引入ERP和fMRI研究中医语言，将从认知神经科学的层面阐明中医具有独特性思维，使中医思维这一看不见的事件变成有目共睹的事实。

认知神经科学的发展为思维研究提供了新的技术手段。语言展现思维，医学语言是医学思维的主要表达形式，通过事件相关电位（ERP）与功能性磁共振技术（fMRI）捕捉大脑在加工不同医学语言时产生的信号，分析其差异所在，探索医学语言加工过程中的脑神经机制，为中西医思维存在差异提供实证研究证据，揭示中医学独特性思维的神经机制。实验从词汇、句子、语篇三个层面开展：在词汇层面，通过中西医脏腑及疾病术语实验，发现相比于西医，中医的脏腑概念加工过程更抽象，中、西医疾病术语的加工也存在大脑左右分区和认知抑制程度的不同；通过阴阳思维实验发现存在“阳”范畴语义空间顺序优势效应，且抽象与具体概念的认知方式存在相似性，有相互转化的特点；在句子层面，通过中西医句子理解实验，发现中医句子的理解模式较西医更为复杂，这与中医的隐喻性特点相关。另外，拥有不同中医学习时间的人群对中医隐喻句理解方式存在差异，本科生群体倾向于使用隐喻映射通路，研究生群体倾向于使用范畴化通路；在语篇层面，通过中西医病案推理实验，发现中医诊断过程依赖舌脉信息，舌脉信息的出现会激起中医证型的提前加工，其缺失会导致中医证型加工困难，舌脉信息并不会影响西医的诊断过程。以上结果揭示了中西医语言下不同的认知方式，证明了中医学具有独特思维的命题。本项目已按照任务书计划完成全部研究内容。