An fMRI study of activation patterns in women during picture processing

The purpose of the study was to use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to identify patterns of picture processing during two specific tasks that will be used to investigate visual processing in normal and disordered aging population in future research. The study identified visual processing areas in two healthy young female participants who underwent fMRI. The two participants passively viewed photographs of chairs, faces and control screens and indicated when the category changed by pressing a button during fMRI scanning. Participants also viewed two line drawings of animals and vegetables in pairs. The paired pictures were either the same object or different. Different objects varied by shape and were either very similar such as a tiger and lion or very different such as a lizard and snake. Our research found greater prefrontal activation on tasks of Passive Viewing across subjects when compared to Object Discrimination Tasks. On tasks of Passive Viewing, participant F1 showed greater anterior frontal lobe activation compared to participant F2 who demonstrated greater activation in the frontal lobe and cerebellum. Participant F2 had more inferior lobule activation, where as Participant F1 more superior and anterior lobule activation. F1 showed less posterior temporal-occipital activation on tasks of Object Discrimination compared to F2. On Discrimination Tasks of low similarity, F1 scored 50% on her second run compared to F2's second run of 100% for accuracy. For Discrimination Tasks of high similarity, F2 again out performed F1 with a gap of 20%. Finally, on measurements of accuracy for Discrimination Tasks were the objects were the 5same; F2 was 90% accurate while F1 was 70% accurate.