title: Age-dependent brain activation during forward and backward digit recall revealed by fMRI.
abstract: In this study, brain activation associated with forward and backward digit recall was examined in healthy old and young adults using functional MRI. A number of areas were activated during the recall. In young adults, greater activation was found in the left prefrontal cortex (BA9) and the left occipital visual cortex during backward digit recall than forward digit recall. In contrast, the activation in the right inferior frontal gyrus (BA 44/45) was more extensive in forward digit recall than in backward digit recall. In older adults, backward recall generated stronger activation than forward recall in most areas, including the frontal, the parietal, the occipital, and the temporal cortices. In the backward recall condition, the right inferior frontal gyrus (BA44/45) showed more activation in the old group than in the young group. These results suggest that different neural mechanisms may be involved in forward and backward digit recall and brain functions associated with these two types of recall are differentially affected by aging.
authors.affiliation: Hefei Natinal Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, and Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui.
authors.forename: Xiwen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Xiaochu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Xiangchuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bao
authors.forename: Daren
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Xiaoping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Hu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010100:Oxygen / Q000097:blood; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen