The tasks contained the same set of stimuli but differed with respect to the judgment of whether the stimulus indicated a Japanese particle or an [u]-ending letter. Each block contained 10 trials, which included five correct and five incorrect items. One session contained six blocks each, and participants were asked to perform two sessions. At the beginning of each block, participants saw the task instructions (“Particle” or “Phonological” in Japanese) for 1 sec. The stimuli were presented visually on Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the screen inside the fMRI scanner for 1.5 sec followed by a fixation cross presentation for 3 sec.

The inter-block interval was 10 sec. Participants were asked to judge which choice was correct by pressing buttons with their right hand. Trials were randomly presented within each block. The accuracy rates and response times for all tasks were collected using E-Prime software running on a Windows-based computer, which was also used for the visual presentation of experimental stimuli. Data acquisition We collected fMRI scans using a 3T Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Intera Enzastaurin Achieva MRI scanner (Achieva,

Philips, Best, the Netherlands) at Tohoku University. Head motion was minimized by the use of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical cushions and tape around participants’ heads. Thirty axial slices (4 mm thickness; FOV = 192 mm; data matrix: 64 × 64 voxels) were acquired every 2 sec during functional measurements [BOLD-sensitive gradient Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical EPI sequence; TR = 2000 msec; TE = 30 ms; flip angle = 70°]. Following functional image acquisition, anatomical T1-weighted images were also acquired from all participants. Data analysis The fMRI time series data were analyzed using SPM5 software (Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, http://www.fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk/) implemented on MATLAB (MathWorks, Inc., Shelborn, MA, USA). Slice-timing adjustment, realignment, spatial normalization to the standard brain space, and smoothing with an isotropic Gaussian kernel of 8-mm full width at half-maximum using the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical standard SPM method were carried out, and a high-pass frequency filter (128 sec) was applied. Time series

data were modeled and convolved with the hemodynamic response function. Event-related analysis was performed. In the analysis, regressors of particle events, non-particle events, and incorrect responses were set in the first-level design. Particle events contained (1) GSK-3 ga in the particle judgment task (ga_par), (2) ni (ni_par), (3) o (o_par), (4) ga in the phonological judgment task (ga_pho), (5) ni (ni_pho) and (6) o (o_pho) as regressors of interest. Others were regressors of no interest. In the second-level analysis, the six images created in the first-level analysis were used to www.selleckchem.com/products/Gefitinib.html conduct the two-way ANOVA (task × particle) in order to determine whether previous results were replicated or not (e.g., main effect of task; Inui et al.