An fMRI Study of Frontal Lobe Function in Attention

Summary

The main objective of the study is to examine the same effects of the COMT genotype on problem solving and the frontoparietal network activity in a normal healthy volunteers. These healthy volunteers will be age matched with our previously acquired Parkinsons data. Each volunteer will take part in one fMRI scanning session, at the MRC Cognition & Brain Sciences Unit, during which they will undertake a 10 minute planning task, and a twenty minute cognitive flexibility task, as well as standard structural scans. In addition volunteers will undertake a short battery of standard cognitive tests from the CANTAB testing battery. Testing will take in total approximately 2 hours, with no more than 1 hour 15 minutes spent in the scanner. As a number of age matched controls have already taken part in the study, we will require details of only 20 participants of each COMT genotype.