A parametric study of prefrontal cortex involvement in human working memory

Braver, Todd S.; Cohen, Jonathan D.; Nystrom, Leigh E.; Jonides, John; Smith, Edward E.; Noll, Douglas C.

doi:10.1016/s1053-8119(96)80534-9

Cited by 360 publications

(541 citation statements)

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“…A putative distracting effect of MR gradient noise is presumably more pronounced in a cognitively demanding experiment. Because working memory is particularly susceptible to auditory distracting noise [14], we chose an established and challenging working memory letter nback task, also known as sequential letter task [19][20][21][22][23]. In the active 3-back condition a target is any letter that is equivalent to the letter three items back.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effect of fMRI acoustic noise on non-auditory working memory task: comparison between continuous and pulsed sound emitting EPI

Haller

Bartsch

Radüe

et al. 2005

MAGMA

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Conventional blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is accompanied by substantial acoustic gradient noise. This noise can influence the performance as well as neuronal activations. Conventional fMRI typically has a pulsed noise component, which is a particularly efficient auditory stimulus. We investigated whether the elimination of this pulsed noise component in a recent modification of continuous-sound fMRI modifies neuronal activations in a cognitively demanding non-auditory working memory task. Sixteen normal subjects performed a letter variant n-back task. Brain activity and psychomotor performance was examined during fMRI with continuous-sound fMRI and conventional fMRI. We found greater BOLD responses in bilateral medial frontal gyrus, left middle frontal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, left hippocampus, right superior frontal gyrus, right precuneus and right cingulate gyrus with continuous-sound compared to conventional fMRI. Conversely, BOLD responses were greater in bilateral cingulate gyrus, left middle and superior frontal gyrus and right lingual gyrus with conventional compared to continuous-sound fMRI. There were no differences in psychomotor performance between both scanning protocols. Although behavioral performance was not affected, acoustic gradient noise interferes with neuronal activations in non-auditory cognitive tasks and represents a putative systematic confound.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subjects performed a sequential letter task also known as letter variant of an n-back task, which is an established working memory probe [19][20][21][22][23]. In brief, subjects were placed in the scanner and visual stimuli were back-projected onto a semi-translucent canvas during functional imaging.…”

Section: Experimental Tasksmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of fMRI acoustic noise on non-auditory working memory task: comparison between continuous and pulsed sound emitting EPI

Haller

Bartsch

Radüe

et al. 2005

MAGMA

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“…It was found that activation of a prefrontal-parietal network was greater when strategic recoding could be applied than when it could not, irrespective of whether strategic recoding was based on mathematical redundancy or well-established memories. As strategic recoding facilitated performance, the prefrontal activation relating to strategic recoding could not be attributed to increased task difficulty, which is also known to activate the prefrontal cortex (Braver et al 1997).…”

Section: The Episodic Buffer and Neuroimagingmentioning

confidence: 95%

The role of the episodic buffer in working memory for language processing

Rudner

Rönnberg

2007

Cogn Process

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A body of work has accumulated to show that the cognitive process of binding information from different mnemonic and sensory sources as well as in different linguistic modalities can be fractionated from general executive functions in working memory both functionally and neurally. This process has been defined in terms of the episodic buffer (Baddeley in Trends Cogn Sci 4(11):417-423, 2000). This paper considers behavioural, neuropsychological and neuroimaging data that elucidate the role of the episodic buffer in language processing. We argue that the episodic buffer seems to be truly multimodal in function and that while formation of unitary multidimensional representations in the episodic buffer seems to engage posterior neural networks, maintenance of such representations is supported by frontal networks. Although, the episodic buffer is not necessarily supported by executive processes and seems to be supported by different neural networks, it may operate in tandem with the central executive during effortful language processing. There is also evidence to suggest engagement of the phonological loop during buffer processing. The hippocampus seems to play a role in formation but not maintenance of representations in the episodic buffer of working memory.

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“…Evidence from imaging studies of normal subjects indicates that the functional processes involved in spatial working memory are mediated by a neural network linking the prefrontal cortex (PFC), including both dorsal PFC (Brodmann's area 46/9) and ventral PFC (BA 44,45,47), and the parietal cortex, temporal cortex, and anterior cingulate cortex (BA 24/32) (Goldman-Rakic 1995;D'Esposito et al 1995D'Esposito et al , 1999Rowe and Passingham 2001;Wagner et al 2001;Munk et al 2002). In particular, working memory tasks appear to activate Brodmann's area 46/9, as well as ventral PFC (BA 44,45,47), and supplementary motor and premotor cortices (BA 6) (Smith et al 1996;Braver et al 1997;Courtney et al 1997Courtney et al , 1998Rowe and Passingham 2001). Working memory studies have suggested that BA6 is activated regardless of the type of information being processed (Baker et al 1996;D'Esposito et al 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%