Distinguishing the functional roles of multiple regions in distributed neural systems for visual working memory

James V. Haxby, Laurent Petit, Leslie G. Ungerleider, Susan M. Courtney
NeuroImage. 2000-05-01; 11(5): 380-391
DOI: 10.1006/nimg.2000.0592

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1. Neuroimage. 2000 May;11(5 Pt 1):380-91.

Distinguishing the functional roles of multiple regions in distributed neural
systems for visual working memory.

Haxby JV(1), Petit L, Ungerleider LG, Courtney SM.

Author information:
(1)Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health,
Bethesda, MD 20892-1366, USA.

Comment in
Neuroimage. 2000 May;11(5 Pt 1):447-50.
Neuroimage. 2000 May;11(5 Pt 1):451-7.

We have investigated the human neural systems for visual working memory using
functional magnetic resonance imaging to distinguish sustained activity during
memory delays from transient responses related to perceptual and motor
operations. These studies have identified six distinct frontal regions that
demonstrate sustained activity during memory delays. These regions could be
distinguished from brain regions in extrastriate cortex that participate more in
perception and from brain regions in medial and lateral frontal cortex that
participate more in motor control. Moreover, the working memory regions could be
distinguished from each other based on the relative strength of their
participation in spatial and face working memory and on the relative strength of
sustained activity during memory delays versus transient activity related to
stimulus presentation. These results demonstrate that visual working memory
performance involves the concerted activity of multiple regions in a widely
distributed system. Distinctions between functions, such as perception versus
memory maintenance, or spatial versus face working memory, are a matter of the
degree of participation of different regions, not the discrete parcellation of
different functions to different modules.

Copyright 2000 Academic Press.

DOI: 10.1006/nimg.2000.0592
PMID: 10806025 [Indexed for MEDLINE]

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