Abstract
[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to measure the verbal working memory capacity of elderly subjects in the community by a reading span test (RST) of Japanese. [Subjects] The subjects were 11 elderly females aged 72.2 ± 5.8 years. [Method] Frontal lobe activity was evaluated during this test on the basis of changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO2) measured by near-infrared spectroscopy. [Results] Significant increases in HbO2 were observed during 2-sentence tasks from task 1, immediately after initiation of the RST, to task 5. The increases were maintained until the end of the RST. [Conclusion] These results show that activity in the frontal lobe increases during the RST in the elderly, and working memory participates in the cognitive function of the frontal lobe.
