title: Distinctions and similarities among working memory processes: an event-related potential study.
abstract: Working memory has been conceptualized as consisting of a number of components, such as an articulatory loop for rehearsing verbal material, a visuo-spatial sketch pad for maintaining visual images and a central executive that controls which information is made available for conscious processing. We recorded event-related brain potentials (ERPs) from normal human subjects while they maintained either visuo-spatial or phonological material in short-term memory for a 5-s interval. The results indicated that specialized brain systems for short-term storage of phonological and visuo-spatial information could be identified on the basis of marked differences between the topographies and morphologies of the ERP components elicited during these two types of short-term memory. The differences emerged during early encoding stages and continued through later retention stages.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
authors.forename: D S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Ruchkin
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Grafman
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Canoune
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ritter
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004193:Discrimination Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D010700:Phonetics; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D013997:Time Factors; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*