20대와 40대의 공간 인지 능력, 대뇌 활성화 및 대뇌 편측화의 차이

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The present study purposed to examine differences between 20s and 40s in visuospatial performance, the number of activated voxels and cerebral lateralization using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI). For this study, eight college students in their twenties (21.5 years on the average) and six adults in their forties (45.7 years on the average) participated in the experiment. Functional brain images were taken from 3T MRI using the single-shot EPI method. Compared to the twenties the forties showed lower visuospatial performance and longer reaction time. In addition, compared to the twenties the forties had a smaller number of activated voxels and less cerebral lateralization. The results of this study show that people's visuospatial performance and number of activated voxels decrease with aging. In addition, they also suggest that cerebral lateralization decreases in order to supplement the lowering of visuospatial performance, which in tum symmetrizes the activation of the left and right hemisphere.