title: Hippocampal and posterior parietal contributions to developmental increases in visual short-term memory capacity.
abstract: Developmental increases in visual short-term memory (VSTM) capacity have been associated with changes in attention processing limitations and changes in neural activity within neural networks including the posterior parietal cortex (PPC). A growing body of evidence suggests that the hippocampus plays a role in VSTM, but it is unknown whether the hippocampus contributes to the capacity increase across development. We investigated the functional development of the hippocampus and PPC in 57 children, adolescents and adults (age 8-27 years) who performed a visuo-spatial change detection task. A negative relationship between age and VSTM related activity was found in the right posterior hippocampus that was paralleled by a positive age-activity relationship in the right PPC. In the posterior hippocampus, VSTM related activity predicted individual capacity in children, whereas neural activity in the right anterior hippocampus predicted individual capacity in adults. The findings provide first evidence that VSTM development is supported by an integrated neural network that involves hippocampal and posterior parietal regions.
authors.affiliation: Center for MR Research and Children's Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: davidyoh.vonallmen@uzh.ch.
authors.forename: David Yoh
authors.initials: DY
authors.lastname: von Allmen
authors.affiliation: Center for MR Research and Children's Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: karoline.wurmitzer@uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Karoline
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wurmitzer
authors.affiliation: Center for MR Research and Children's Research Center, University Children's Hospital Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Institute of Psychology, University of Zurich, Division of Psychopathology and Clinical Intervention, Zurich, Switzerland; Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; Zurich Center for Integrative Human Physiology (ZIHP), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland. Electronic address: p.klaver@psychologie.uzh.ch.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Klaver
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development / Q000502:physiology*; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Development; Hippocampus; Individual differences; Posterior parietal cortex; Visual short-term memory