The purpose of Neuroimaging Core B is to provide the subprojects of this program project grant with the facilities, technical expertise, and methodology, to successfully apply fMRI to the study and treatment of aphasia and related disorders caused by stroke and other neurological disorders. This will include all aspects of data acquisition (including interface of task presentation and performance monitoring with the MR scanning), data transfer, data archiving, and data analysis (including statistics). In particular, it will be the function of the core to provide optimized MRI sequences for anatomic, angiographic and functional images of the brain for subjects selected for fMRI. In this program project proposal, fMRI will be used by the various subprojects to answer two types of questions. Every fMRI component of the subprojects in this proposal will address one or both of the following questions for the relevant language and cognitive functions. (1) How do damaged brain systems operate differently from normal brain systems in performing various tasks? To answer this question, functional brain maps of brain- damaged patients will be compared to those of neurologically normal controls on relevant cognitive tasks. (2) How does rehabilitation change brain systems responsible for relevant cognitive activities in brain- damaged individuals? To anser this question, functional brain maps will be acquired for relevant cognitive activities before and after the individual patient receives rehabilitation.
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