Abstract
Near Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) offers an invaluable tool to monitor the functionality of the brain. NIRS with its high temporal resolution and good spatial resolution has been applied towards various area of brain research in order to map the cortical regions of the brain. The present study is aimed at using NIRS to understand the functionality of the temporal cortex in response to language-related tasks. A 32-channel NIRS system (Imagent ISS Inc.) is used to perform experimental studies on 15 normal adults. A block-design based Word Expression and Word Reception tasks were independently presented to the participants during the imaging study. Unlike past research where only the brain activation was determined for language tasks, in the current study the activation, connectivity, and lateralization in the temporal cortex are correlated. In the future, the work is focused to target the pediatric epileptic populations, where understanding the temporal brain functionality in response to language is essential in pre-surgical clinical environment.
