Age-related differences in effective connectivity of brain regions involved in kanji processing with homophone judgment task.

• Main Author: Koh, Serene Jia Ying.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44821
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The study examined two prominent models of kanji processing (sequential and parallel model) through a homophone judgment task designed for administration in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) investigation. Dynamic causal modeling (DCM) was used to examine which model is a better representation of kanji processing for both young and elderly, and to evaluate the presence of age-related effects in kanji processing. DCM analysis showed that a parallel model of kanji processing provided a better fit with our dataset. No age-related decline was found in the left hemisphere regions in terms of effective connectivity. Instead, the elderly had significantly higher intrinsic connection from MFG to ventral IFG than the young suggesting an apparent enhanced semantic processing.