Study of localizing brain regions related to short-term digital memory by functional magnetic resonance imaging

Objective To examine the activation of brain regions in normal volunteers during short-term digital memory task by functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI)technique.Methods 12 right-handed normal volunteers participated in a test of short-term digital memory task.while the fMRI data were recorded.A control task was performed for the block-design.SPM 99(statistics parameter mapping 99)was used to analyze the data and to get the activated brain regions.Results When the threshold of the group analysis was set as P＜0.0001,both cortex and subcortical structures were activated.The brain cortex areas including the bilateral occipital lobes,frontal lobes and parietal lobes were activated during the task.The subcortical structures including the lentiform nucleus and the caudate nucleus were also activated during the task.Meanwhile,the bilateral occipital lobes were the most prominently activated brain regions.Conclusion In human brain,the information of the short-term digital memois manipulated by the collaborative activity between subcortical stmctures and cortex and employing phonological and visual coding. Key words: Short-term digital memory ;  Functional magnetic resonance imaging(fMRI);  Cerebral cortex;  Subeortical structures