自然阅读中的眼动过程和神经基础

Eye Movement Processes and Neural Basis of Natural Reading

摘要: 自然阅读是一种兼具高生态效度与复杂认知需求的语言加工活动。眼动追踪技术长期以来是探索阅读实时动态过程的核心手段，首次注视时间、回视路径时长等眼动指标为研究者提供了从外部行为推断内部认知加工阶段的系统框架。功能磁共振成像研究进一步揭示了自然阅读的神经网络基础，涵盖负责正字法编码与语义提取的腹侧通路、支撑句法分析与篇章整合的左侧额颞网络，以及调控视觉扫描行为的通用眼动控制网络。近年来，眼动与fMRI联合范式通过将注视点作为内部事件标记，实现了自然阅读情境下眼动行为与脑区激活之间实时对应关系的直接考察，在词汇效应神经机制的探究中展现出独特优势。然而，特定眼动指标背后的微观神经机制尚未得到充分阐明，“指标–加工”对应关系的神经实证仍是该领域亟待深入的核心议题。

Abstract: Natural reading is a language processing activity characterized by high ecological validity and complex cognitive demands. Eye-tracking has long served as the primary tool for investigating the real-time dynamics of reading, and a range of eye movement metrics—such as first fixation duration and regression path duration—have provided a systematic framework for inferring internal cognitive processing stages from overt oculomotor behavior. Complementary fMRI research has delineated the neural network architecture supporting natural reading, encompassing the ventral stream for orthographic and semantic processing, a left-lateralized fronto-temporal network for syntactic and discourse-level integration, and a domain-general oculomotor control network regulating visual scanning. More recently, combined eye-tracking and fMRI paradigms, which treat individual fixations as internal event markers, have enabled direct examination of brain-behavior correspondences during natural reading, yielding unique insights into the neural mechanisms underlying lexical effects. Nevertheless, the fine-grained neural substrates of specific eye movement metrics remain insufficiently characterized, and establishing direct neural evidence for the mapping between metrics and cognitive processing stages represents a central challenge for the field.