Distinctions and similarities among working memory processes: an event-related potential study.
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.
Ruchkin
D S
DS
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21201, USA.
Johnson
R
R
Grafman
J
J
Canoune
H
H
Ritter
W
W
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*