AbstractsPsychology

In order to investigate the possible use of fMRI in a clinical pre-surgical evaluation of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients, two experimental paradigms were tested on healthy controls. The paradigms were designed to elicit memory processing, and thus activation in medial temporal lobe areas; in particular the hippocampus. Participants were presented with two paradigms where they were asked during scanning to categorize a range of pictures of sceneries (categorized as either a park or a building) and faces (categorized as male or female), creating an implicit memorizing situation when presenting either new or repeated pictures. In addition, the participants viewed pictures that were scrambled, and asked to decide on the symmetrical properties of the picture, eliciting associative (relational) memory processing. After careful analyses, the data suggests that these experimental paradigms do indeed induce activation in the memory centres of the brain and that it can be possible to further develop a set of paradigms that might be ready for use in a clinical setting. Implications of these findings in relation to earlier research as well as suggestions for further research are discussed.