An fMRI Study on Neural Activities relating to Mental Imagery

DOI
  • Nishimura Chiaki
    Department of Medical Informatics, Toho University School of Medicine
  • Nagase Aki
    Department of Medical Informatics, Toho University School of Medicine
  • Terada Kazuko
    Department of Medical Informatics, Toho University School of Medicine
  • Wang Li Qun
    Research Center for Advanced Technologies, Tokyo Denki University

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Other Title
  • イメージ想起に付随する脳神経活動のfMRIによる検討

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Abstract

Performance of biofeedback is improved when an appropriate imagery is applied in the training process. In this paper, neural correlates of imagery were studied by measuring neurophysiological activities in imagery related to autobiographical memory, a memory for events and issues closely related to oneself. We measured changes in relative regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) using fMRI. Each subject was requested to read a brief sentence in which an episode in his/her own past or that of other person was described, then to silently make an image of the situation in his/her mind. The block-designed fMRI measurement was performed. In Experiment I, rCBF during autobiographical and nonautobiographical memory retrieval was compared in three conditions. In Experiment II, the contents of the episodes were subdivided into four conditions depend on emotional tone (positive/negative) and temporal remoteness (recent/remote). The results of the Experiment I show that the activated regions in autobiographical memory retrieval was almost the same as those in nonautobiograpghical memory retrieval, but area was larger in autobiographical memory retrieval. And relative rCBF specifically increased in the frontal association area. The results of the Experiment II show that, except visual and prefrontal cortices, activated regions were different when the subjects retrieved the memories with differential emotional tone and temporal remoteness. In comparing areas in the four conditions, they were arranged as follows : negative-recent < positive-recent < negative-remote < positive-remote. Those results suggest the advantage of autobiographical memory as a resource of imagery in biofeedback training because of its stability and its effect on neural activation in the prefrontal cortex. They also give a clue in selecting the kind of imagery in biofeedback training based on the autobiographical memory in terms of emotional tone and temporal remoteness.

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