Functional organization of activation patterns in children: Whole brain fMRI imaging during three different cognitive tasks

Abstract

1. 1. Patterns of brain activation were measured with whole brain echo-planar functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3.0 Tesla in healthy children ( N = 6) and in one child with a left- hemisphere encephalomalacic lesion as sequellae from early stroke. 2. 2. Three cognitive tasks were used: auditory sentence comprehension, verb generation to line drawings, and mental rotation of alphanumeric stimuli. 3. 3. There was evidence for significant bilateral activation m all three cognitive tasks for the healthy children. Their patterns of activation were consistent with previous functional imaging studies with adults. 4. 4. The child with a left-hemisphere stroke showed evidence of homologous organization in the non- damaged hemisphere.