Functional organization of activation patterns in children: Whole brain fMRI imaging during three different cognitive tasks

1. Patterns of brain activation were measured with whole brain echo-planar functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at 3.0 Tesla in healthy childr en (N=6) and in one child with a left-hemisphere encephalomalacic lesion as sequellae from early stroke. 2. Three cognitive tasks were used: auditory sentence comprehension, verb g eneration to line drawings, and mental rotation of alphanumeric stimuli. 3. There was evidence for significant bilateral activation in all three cog nitive tasks for the healthy children. Their patterns of activation were co nsistent with previous functional imaging studies with adults. 4. The child with a left-hemisphere stroke showed evidence of homologous or ganization in the nondamaged hemisphere.