Measuement of cerebral blood oxygeneation during a verbal fluency task with juggling by means of fNIRS

Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to study changes in cerebral blood oxygenation during a verbal fluency task. Five right-handed male volunteers matched on demographic variables and verbal fluency performance participated in the study. Images were acquired over 5 minutes at 1.5 T while the subjects performed two tasks. The first involved paced silent generation of words beginning with an aurally presented cue letter. This task alternated with paced silent repetition of the aurally presented word "rest." Significant responses were observed in the left prefrontal cortex, the insula bilaterally, the midline supplementary motor area, and the medial parietal cortex.