Brain processes in spatial tasking studied
March 8th 2007 10:41
Signature Tune
From Imedinews,
March 7, 2007, 09:37 PM
Hi-tech, World
ATLANTA, March 7 (UPI) — A U.S. psychology professor has determined the human brain uses the same processes for performing, as well as preparing for, spatial processing tasks.
Eric Schumacher of the Georgia Institute of Technology found that for most tasks involving spatial processing, there are three brain processes involved.
Using a brain imaging study, Schumacher, along with colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of California- Berkeley, monitored the activity of brain regions in subjects while they responded to visual stimuli.
The researchers predicted that when they gave the subjects a cue they were about to perform a hard task, only the superior parietal cortex, known for its involvement in spatial attention, and the premotor cortex, known for planning movements, would activate. Then, the prefrontal cortex, known for its role in decision-making, would activate after the stimulus was presented.
They were wrong.
We found that all of these regions began to activate when the subjects prepared to do the task, even the prefrontal, which is the region that makes the decision on what to do, said Schumacher.
The study is presented online in the journal Brain Research.
Copyright © 2007 by United Press International
| 39 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
