Functional neuroanatomical double dissociation of mnemonic and executive control processes contributing to working memory performance

We used event-related functional MRI to investigate the neural bases of two categories of mental processes believed to contribute to performance of an alphabetization working memory task: memory storage and memory manipulation. Our delayed-response tasks required memory for the identity and position-in-the-display of items in two- or five-letter memory sets (to identify load-sensitive regions) or memory for the identity and relative position-in-the-alphabet of items in five-letter memory sets (to identify manipulation-sensitive regions). Results revealed voxels in the left perisylvian cortex of five of five subjects showing load sensitivity (as contrasted with alphabetization-sensitive voxels in this region in only one subject) and voxels of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in all subjects showing alphabetization sensitivity (as contrasted with load-sensitive voxels in this region in two subjects). This double dissociation was reliable at the group level. These data are consistent with the hypothesis that the nonmnemonic executive control processes that can contribute to working memory function are primarily prefrontal cortex-mediated whereas mnemonic processes necessary for working memory storage are primarily posteriorly mediated. More broadly, they support the view that working memory is a faculty that arises from the coordinated interaction of computationally and neuroanatomically dissociable processes.

Neural correlates of mental transformations of the body-in-space.

Regional cerebral blood flow was measured with positron emission tomography in human subjects during the performance of a task requiring mental rotation of their hand and a perceptually equivalent control task that did not require such a process. Comparison of the distribution of cerebral activity between these conditions demonstrated significant blood flow increases in the superior parietal cortex, the intraparietal sulcus, and the adjacent rostralmost part of the inferior parietal lobule. These findings demonstrated that, in the human brain, there is a specific system of parietal areas that are involved in mental transformations of the body-in-space.