The aim was to develop two word retrieval fMRI paradigms, verbal fluency and confrontation naming which incorporated an overt method of responding appropriate for use with patient groups. Introduction Verbal fluency and confrontation naming tasks are frequently employed in clinical and experimental neuropsychology to investigate word retrieval processes.
Performance measurement is essential for the investigation of patient groups.
However, designs which have included overt speech during imaging have had the additional problem of noise interference from rapidly switching MR gradients. In the current investigation two overt paradigms were developed in which response output could be effectively monitored and which could accommodate an older and potentially impaired subject group. Method Seven right-handed normal subjects aged between 39 and 67 years were investigated. A sparse pulse sequence was used where data acquisition took place within the first 2000ms of each TR, leaving 4000ms during which the subject provided an overt response when there was no sound of the MR gradients. A high resolution inversion recovery echoplanar image was also obtained for subsequent registration to Talairach space.