A study on striatum involved in associative learning memory by functional magnetic resonance imaging technique and clinical observation

Abstract

Objective To examine whether the striatum are involved in associative learning and memory cognitive function of human brain by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique and clinical observation.Methods 14 right-handed normal volunteers participated in a test of paired-word associative learning and memory ,while the fMRI data were recorded.Control tasks were performed for the block-design.SPM 99 was used to analyze the data and to obtain the activated brain regions.14 patients with striatum damages and 14 matched normal volunteers participated in a test of paired-word associative learning and memory.Results When the threshold was set as P＜0.005 ,using a one-sample t -test ,the left occipital lobe (t=13.87)were activated remarkably during the encoding process of the paired-word associative learning and memory task.However,during the retrieval process,the prominently activated brain regions were the left parietal lobe (t=8.73).The striatum (t=7.02/7.47) were also obviously activated during these two stages.The scores of the paired-word associative learning and memory test on the patients with striatum damages and the healthy volunteers were respectively 11.53±1.39 and 19.18±2.89 ,the difference was significant (P ＜ 0.001).Conclusion The results of this study reveal that the subcortical structures such as the striatum as well as the cerebral cortex are involved in the associative learning and memory in human brain ,and the damages of striatum would show the disorder of associative learning and memory cognitive function. Key words: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) ; Associative learning and memory; Cognitive function; Striatum; Human brain