Resumen

LETELIER A, Ignacio; CHABERT, Steren  y  VIELMA P, Juan. IMPLEMENTATION AND VALIDATION OF A STIMULATION PROTOCOL FOR ORAL LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION USING FUNCTIONAL MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING: PRELIMINARY RESULTS. Rev. chil. radiol. [online]. 2010, vol.16, n.2, pp. 64-69. ISSN 0717-9308.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4067/S0717-93082010000200005.

This study aimed at implementing a stimulation protocol using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), in a Hospital in Valparaiso (V Region), Chile, to detect cortical areas activated in oral language comprehension. Seven healthy volunteers participated in this study. Average t-score and signal variation were 6.3±0.3 and 0.5±0.1%, respectively. In spite of these low values, activations were obtained in Wernicke area, middle temporal gyrus, and Heschl s gyrus. The extension of activated areas was small, 5.06±2.99 cm3, probably due to amplifer low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), in addition to the cognitive complexity of the task, and to the ambient acoustic noise. Successful implementation of fMRI protocols of language comprehension is possible in a clinical context in Chile without any additional resources.

Palabras llave : Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Low signal-to-noise ratio; Oral language comprehension.