Echo-planar imaging (EPI) can provide rapid imaging by acquiring a complete k-space data set in a single acquisition. However, this approach suffers from distortion effects in geometry and intensity, resulting in poor image quality. The distortions, caused primarily by field inhomogeneities, lead to intensity loss and voxel shifts, the latter of which are particularly severe in the phase-encode...

The paper discusses specificity of linguistic competence, brain imaging data, mental lexicon in language acquisition and pathology. Connectionist and modular approaches are observed in the context of origins of language and in the cognitive framework.

Mental effort is a limited resource which must be invested to perform mental tasks. The amount of mental effort investment that an individual experiences during task performance can be measured afterwards with the help of self-rating scales. Earlier research suggests that integration of information about somatic state changes is crucial for the self-evaluation of mental effort investment. Damag...

There is a need to diversify mental health research that uses brain imaging. Currently, this research almost exclusively includes participants from the 'Western' world, a majority of whom are Caucasian (Henrich et al, 2010a; 2010b). In light of studies from cultural neuroscience, which use brain imaging to demonstrate that people from different countries exhibit different neural activity, the l...

Behavioral and function magnetic resonance imagery (fMRI) data were combined to infer the mental states of students as they interacted with an intelligent tutoring system. Sixteen children interacted with a computer tutor for solving linear equations over a six-day period (days 0-5), with days 1 and 5 occurring in an fMRI scanner. Hidden Markov model algorithms combined a model of student behav...

The current study investigated behavioral and neural effects of motor, mental, and combined motor and mental training on a finger tapping task. The motor or mental training groups trained on a finger-sequence for a total of 72 min over 6 weeks. The motor and mental training group received 72 min motor training and in addition 72 min mental training. Results showed that all groups increased thei...

Visual hallucinations occur when our conscious experience does not accurately reflect external reality. However, these dissociations also regularly occur when we imagine the world around us in the absence of visual stimulation. We used two novel behavioural paradigms to objectively measure visual hallucinations and voluntary mental imagery in 19 individuals with Parkinson's disease (ten with vi...

Twelve right-handed men performed two mental rotation tasks and two control tasks while whole-head functional magnetic resonance imaging was applied. Mental rotation tasks implied the comparison of different sorts of stimulus pairs, viz. pictures of hands and pictures of tools, which were either identical or mirror images and which were rotated in the plane of the picture. Control tasks were eq...

results stereoscopic displays of the nerves were obtained in all 24 elbows by vr, mip, and fiber tractography post-processing methods. the vr/mip post-processing methods were easier to perform compared to fiber tractography. there was no significant difference among the scores of fiber tracking and vr/mip reconstruction for single direction. the imaging quality scores of fiber tractography and ...