A FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING STUDY OF EPISODIC MEMORY

We have used whole brain fMRI and canonical variate analysis to invest igate the anatomical location of brain activity subserving episodic me mory encoding and recognition. Recognition of previously presented wor ds did not specifically activate right prefrontal areas although right -sided activations were seen during transitions between the target and reference phases of the paradigm. Encoding was associated with left s ided prefrontal activation, but this was within Broca's area rather th an dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. The temporal resolution of fMRI, co mbined with analysis of the apparent functional connectivity of activa tions observed, revealed activity within complex networks each functio nally specialized for the demands of particular aspects of a cognitive task.