Journal article
Left TPJ activity in verbal working memory: Implications for storage- and sensory-specific models of short term memory
NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.), Vol.55(4), pp.1836-1846
04/15/2011
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.12.021
PMID: 21168512
Abstract
Patients with damage to the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ) have a low verbal span without concomitant deficits in speech perception. This pattern of cognitive impairment is taken as evidence for a dedicated phonological buffer that plays little role in perception (storage-specific account). In contrast, other research suggests that items are maintained and perceived in the same regions (sensory-specific account). In an fMRI study, we demonstrate that the left TPJ does not respond in a way predicted of a phonological buffer; that is, activity in this region is not sustained during encoding or maintenance. Instead, a region in the superior temporal gyrus that has been associated with both speech perception and production demonstrated the expected profile of a store: it was more active in the verbal condition than the object condition and was active during both encoding and maintenance. These results support the sensory-specific account of short term memory rather than the storage-specific account. Based on the pattern of activity in the left TPJ, we suggest that the impairment of verbal working memory observed in patients with TPJ damage may be due to diminished attentional processes rather than reduced storage capacity.
►Activity in the left TPJ is not sustained during encoding and maintenance. ►Activity in the left STG is sustained during encoding and maintenance. ►The pattern of results supports sensory-specific models of STM storage.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Left TPJ activity in verbal working memory: Implications for storage- and sensory-specific models of short term memory
- Creators
- Susan M Ravizza - Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, USAEliot Hazeltine - Department of Psychology, University of Iowa, USASandra Ruiz - Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, USADavid C Zhu - Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.), Vol.55(4), pp.1836-1846
- Publisher
- Elsevier Inc
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.12.021
- PMID
- 21168512
- ISSN
- 1053-8119
- eISSN
- 1095-9572
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/15/2011
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984070712702771
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