Abstract
Kanji (Chinese characters in Japanese) recognition processes among Japanese, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Korean were examined using MEG when the participants passively watched Kanji1 (average stroke order is 8), Kanji2 (average stroke order is 13), Korean characters, Simplified Chinese characters, and Complicated Chinese characters (average stroke order is 13). Amplitudes of M170 component (magnet reaction after stimulus onset of 170 ms) were compared within subjects as well as between subjects. The complexity of characters is not in portion to computation in character processing. In all groups, the number of stroke orders did not always reflect the amplitudes of M170. Prominent differences were not found on the basis of mother languages; rather it appears that individual language experience plays an important role on Kanji recognition. For example, the amplitudes of M170 of Kanji2 and Complex Chinese characters were the same in a Japanese participant who had lived in Taiwan.
