Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation over the Left Inferior Parietal Lobule Facilitates Early-Stage Processing During Natural Chinese-English Bilingual Reading.

Overview

1. Faculty of Psychology, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China; (J.W.); (R.H.); (P.X.); (G.Y.)
2. Key Research Base of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Ministry of Education, Academy of Psychology and Behavior, Tianjin Normal University, Tianjin 300387, China
3. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Student Mental Health and Intelligence Assessment, Tianjin 300387, China
4. Department of Linguistics, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW 2109, Australia
5. Department of Language Science and Technology, Faculty of Humanities, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China
6. Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
7. Max Planck Partner Group, School of International Chinese Language Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Abstract

Background: Proficient second language (L2) reading relies on complex neurocognitive processes. Neuroimaging studies have identified key brain regions recruited during L2 reading, including the left inferior parietal lobule (LIPL) and the calcarine cortex (CAL). The LIPL has been suggested to be involved in phonological decoding during L2 reading, whereas the CAL has been implicated in early-stage visual processing. However, given the correlational nature of neuroimaging techniques, it remains unclear whether these regions play causal roles in L2 reading or are merely epiphenomenal. Methods: To address this issue, the present study used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to modulate neural activity in these regions and eye-tracking technology to assess subsequent reading performance in Chinese–English bilinguals. Specifically, ninety-seven participants were randomly assigned to one of three offline TMS conditions: LIPL, CAL or vertex (as a control site) stimulation, after which they performed a natural sentence reading task in English. Results: The results showed that, compared to the control condition, TMS over the LIPL significantly reduced first fixation duration, whereas no significant effects emerged on gaze duration, regression path reading time, or total reading time. TMS over the CAL produced no significant effects on any eye-movement measures. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the LIPL plays a causal role in L2 reading for early-stage lexical processing through phonological decoding. Overall, this study is the first to employ TMS and eye-tracking to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying natural L2 reading.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Data

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• osf:g3kzs, at OSF; found in “Data Availability Statement”

Data Availability Statement

The original data presented in the study are openly available at OSF: https://osf.io/g3kzs (accessed on 14 May 2026).

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Version 1, 28 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 6 authors, 5 keywords, 1 funder, 71 references.

Cite

This paper

Wu, J., Hang, R., Xin, P., Yan, G., Gu, C., & Chen, L. (2026). Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation over the Left Inferior Parietal Lobule Facilitates Early-Stage Processing During Natural Chinese-English Bilingual Reading. Brain sciences, 16(5), 530. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci16050530

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