FUNCTIONAL MRI OF COGNITIVE PROCESSES

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DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): The overall goal of the research proposed in this application is to determine the brain activation patterns during performance of specific perceptual motor cognitive tasks, as revealed by high field strength (4 Tesla) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Healthy women and men will be studied. The tasks are designed to test hypothesis of how some higher order motor functions are represented in the brain. These functions include predictive motor control, such as intercepting a moving target, and tasks reflecting praxis, namely complex purposeful motor actions, such as copying figures from visual templates, finding exit routes in mazes, and constructing objects from component parts. The potential achievement of these objectives is within reach, due to the adequate resolution afforded by the fMRI even for individual subjects. The hypotheses will be tested (a) that each one of the tasks above involves the cooperative interaction of specific brain areas, (b) that there is an overlap in the pattern of this activation, and (c) that this overlap corresponds to the common functional core shared by these tasks. The data acquired will be analyzed using both traditional as well as modern multivariate statistical techniques, such as hierarchical tree analysis. The results to be obtained are expected to provide novel insights into how the brain deals with dynamic visuomotor processes that are commonly disturbed in patients suffering from constructional apraxia. Finally, the general hypothesis will be tested that two genders do not differ in the functional brain activation patterns underlying the tasks above; if significant differences are found, these will be identified and will lead to the generation of new hypotheses about the brain processing of visuo spatial and visuo constructive information by women and men.