A fMRI study of item memory and source memory / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To examine the neural basis of item memory and source memory with fMRI approach.Methods Eight male and eight female healthy fight-handed native Chinese speakers were involved in this study.The item memory and source memory task were conducted with 504 highly frequent Chinese double-character words in the Block-designed experiment.Participants underwent such a double- round procedure as fMRI scanning following study.The fMRI data collected from a GE 1.5T MRI system were analyzed to generate corresponding activation maps for females and males respectively(P20)using statistical parametric mapping software(SPM).Results For females,item memory task activated the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(BA6,the number of activated voxel clusters was 62 or 11 in the left and the right,respectively),source memory more activated the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(BA6/46,the number was 59).For males,item memory activated the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(BA6/46,the number was 64),source memory activated the bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(BA6,9 and 40 in the left and the right).Conclusion On the neural basis of item or source memory,there exists dissociation,which is that right dorsolateral prefrontal areas are more activated by item memory while left dorsolateral prefrontal areas by source memory.For the difference of gender,it is suggested that left dorsolateral prefrontal areas(BA6/46)are more activated in females while right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex(BA6/46)more in males.