工作记忆的脑区.pdfVIP

Neural correlates of access to short-term memory Derek Evan Nee* and John Jonides Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043 Edited by Edward E. Smith, Columbia University, New York, NY, and approved July 17, 2008 (received for review February 29, 2008) Behavioral research has led to the view that items in short-term representation of an item within the focus of attention from other memory can be parsed into two categories: a single item in the focus items that are not within the focus. of attention that is available for immediate cognitive processing and What characteristic distinguishes an item within the focus of a small set of other items that are in a heightened state of activation attention from other items in STM? One possibility is that com- but require retrieval for further use. We examined this distinction by pared with other items in STM, the item in the focus of attention using an item-recognition task. The results show that the item in the is distinguishable from other items simply by greater memory focus of attention is represented by increased activation in inferior strength. Neurally, this may be realized by enhanced activation in temporal representational cortices relative to other information in regions of memory storage for the item that is in the focus of short-term memory. Functional connectivity analyses suggest that attention relative to other items. Such regions of storage most likely activation of these inferior temporal regions is maintained via frontal- include posterior aspects of cortex in the inferior temporal (IT) lobe and posterior-parietal contributions. By contrast, other items in short- responsible for recognizing and representing words, objects, faces, term memory demand retrieval mechanisms