title: Neural Anatomy of Primary Visual Cortex Limits Visual Working Memory.
abstract: Despite the immense processing power of the human brain, working memory storage is severely limited, and the neuroanatomical basis of these limitations has remained elusive. Here, we show that the stable storage limits of visual working memory for over 9 s are bound by the precise gray matter volume of primary visual cortex (V1), defined by fMRI retinotopic mapping. Individuals with a bigger V1 tended to have greater visual working memory storage. This relationship was present independently for both surface size and thickness of V1 but absent in V2, V3 and for non-visual working memory measures. Additional whole-brain analyses confirmed the specificity of the relationship to V1. Our findings indicate that the size of primary visual cortex plays a critical role in limiting what we can hold in mind, acting like a gatekeeper in constraining the richness of working mental function.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, 2052 Sydney, Australia.|Department of Neurophysiology, Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Brain Imaging Center Frankfurt, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Johanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Bergmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology, Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Brain Imaging Center Frankfurt, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Institute of Psychology, Biopsychology, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany.
authors.forename: Erhan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Genç
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology, Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Brain Imaging Center Frankfurt, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, 49076 Osnabrück, Germany.
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kohler
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurophysiology, Max-Planck-Institute for Brain Research, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Brain Imaging Center Frankfurt, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Goethe University, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Ernst Strüngmann Institute in Cooperation with Max Planck Society, 60528 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolf
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Singer
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, 2052 Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: Joel
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pearson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cortical thickness; early visual cortex; gray matter surface size; individual differences; visual working memory