title: Novel n-back spatial working memory task using eye movement response.
abstract: We created a novel eye movement version of the n-back task to measure spatial working memory (WM). Rather than one continuous trial, discrete trials were presented in order to develop a simpler WM task. In Experiment 1, we varied the visibility of the final stimulus to maximize the difference in performance between 0-back and 1-back tasks (WM effect). In Experiment 2, we administered the optimized task to children. In Experiment 3, we further simplified the task. Both adults and children easily completed our task, displaying significant WM effects. Further, similar WM effects were obtained in our original and simplified n-back spatial WM tasks, demonstrating flexibility. Because WM deficits are often an early feature of disease and a marker of disease progression, our saccadic measure of spatial WM may be particularly useful in hard-to-test populations, such as patients and children, and may have application in brain-imaging studies that require discrete trials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, University of Texas The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, 6431 Fannin Street, MSB 7.160A, Houston, 77030 TX, USA.
authors.forename: Cameron B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Jeter
authors.forename: Saumil S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Patel
authors.forename: Anne B
authors.initials: AB
authors.lastname: Sereno
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology*; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*