NJIT eTD: The New Jersey Institute of Technology's electronic Theses & Dissertations
Title:
Encoding and storage components of verbal working memory as revealed by a factorial design, an FMRI study
Author:
Steffener, Jason
Document Type:
Thesis
Department:
Biomedical Engineering Committee
Degree:
Master of Science
Major:
Biomedical Engineering
Advisory Committee:
Lacker, H. Michael
Reisman, Stanley S.
Bly, Benjamin Martin
Thesis Date:
2001, August
Keywords:
Verbal working Memory
low and high memory load
short and long delay
Availability:
Unrestricted
Abstract:

In this fMRI study, the contributions of frontal and posterior brain regions to verbal working memory were investigated. A two-factor design with low and high memory load (2 and 5 letters) and short and long delay (4 and 12 secs.) as factors were used. Based on reports in the literature, we expect activity in the following frontal and parietal brain regions of interest (ROIs): Brodmann areas (BA) 6, 9, 46, 44, 45, 7 and 40. The analysis of collected flvM data involved image processing and statistical analysis methods including realignment, spatial normalization, spatial smoothing, temporal filtering, intensity normalization, statistical tests, and thresholding of results. The design allowed for testing the interaction and main effects of the two factors. The interaction terms revealed involvement in the caudate and BA 6, 9, and 7. The main effects revealed activity in BA 6, 9, 32, 40, 44, cerebellum, thalamus, and caudate. The results of this study support the literature and offer more insight into previous findings.

Complete Thesis:
njit-etd2001-041 (67 pages ~ 3,126 KB pdf)
Feedback:
Please complete this Feedback Form to inform us about your experience using this website. It will assist us in better serving your information needs in the future. Thank You!
Created December 19, 02
To view these documents you will need the Acrobat Reader Plug-in. If you do not have it you can download it free from