Neuroimaging analyses of human working memory

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1998 Sep 29;95(20):12061-8. doi: 10.1073/pnas.95.20.12061.

Abstract

We review a program of research that uses neuroimaging techniques to determine the functional and neural architecture of human working memory. A first set of studies indicates that verbal working memory includes a storage component, which is implemented neurally by areas in the left-hemisphere posterior parietal cortex, and a subvocal rehearsal component, which is implemented by left-hemisphere speech areas, including Broca's area as well as the premotor and supplementary motor areas. We provide a number of neuroimaging dissociations between the storage and rehearsal areas. A second set of studies focuses on spatial working memory and indicates that it is mediated by a network of predominantly right-hemisphere regions that include areas in posterior parietal, occipital, and frontal cortex. We provide some suggestive evidence that these areas, too, divide into storage and rehearsal regions, with right-hemisphere posterior parietal and premotor regions subserving spatial rehearsal. In a final set of studies, we turn to "executive processes," metaprocesses that regulate the processing of working-memory contents. We focus on the executive process of inhibition as it is used in verbal working memory. We provide evidence that such inhibition is mediated by the left-hemisphere prefrontal region and that it can be dissociated from verbal storage and rehearsal processes.

Publication types

  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Brain / anatomy & histology
  • Brain / diagnostic imaging
  • Brain / physiology*
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging
  • Memory / physiology*
  • Models, Neurological
  • Models, Psychological
  • Spatial Behavior / physiology
  • Tomography, Emission-Computed
  • Verbal Behavior / physiology