Thomas K M, King S W, Franzen P L, Welsh T F, Berkowitz A L, Noll D C, Birmaher V, Casey B J
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
Neuroimage. 1999 Sep;10(3 Pt 1):327-38. doi: 10.1006/nimg.1999.0466.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine patterns of cortical activity in children during performance of a spatial working memory task. Six children (8-10 years) and six adults (19-26 years) searched a linear array of four boxes for the appearance of a dot. In the visual blocks, participants made no response. In the motor blocks, participants were instructed to indicate the location of the dot on each trial using a button-press response. In the working memory blocks, participants were instructed to indicate at which location the dot had appeared 1 or 2 trials previously. Both children and adults showed activity in the left precentral and postcentral gyri, as well as the right cerebellum for the motor condition as compared to the visual condition. Comparison of the memory and motor conditions revealed reliable activity in the right superior frontal gyrus (BA 8), right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (BA 10/46), right superior parietal cortex, and bilateral inferior parietal cortex for both adults and children. These results suggest that spatial working memory tasks activate very similar cortical regions for school-age children and adults. The findings differ from previous imaging studies of nonspatial working memory tasks in that the prefrontal activations observed in the current work tend to be more dorsal. Results are discussed in light of the significant behavioral performance differences observed between child and adult participants.
功能磁共振成像（fMRI）被用于检测儿童在执行空间工作记忆任务时的皮质活动模式。六名儿童（8至10岁）和六名成年人（19至26岁）在一个由四个盒子组成的线性阵列中寻找一个点的出现。在视觉组块中，参与者不做反应。在运动组块中，参与者被指示在每次试验中通过按键反应来指出点的位置。在工作记忆组块中，参与者被指示指出点在之前1次或2次试验中出现的位置。与视觉条件相比，儿童和成年人在运动条件下，左中央前回和中央后回以及右侧小脑均表现出活动。对记忆和运动条件的比较显示，成年人和儿童在右侧额上回（BA 8）、右侧背外侧前额叶皮质（BA 10/46）、右侧顶上叶皮质和双侧顶下叶皮质均有可靠的活动。这些结果表明，空间工作记忆任务在学龄儿童和成年人中激活非常相似的皮质区域。这些发现与之前关于非空间工作记忆任务的成像研究不同，因为在当前研究中观察到的前额叶激活往往更靠背侧。根据儿童和成人参与者之间观察到的显著行为表现差异对结果进行了讨论。
