Human parietal cortex lesions impact the precision of spatial working memory.
The neural mechanisms that support working memory (WM) depend on persistent neural activity. Within topographically organized maps of space in dorsal parietal cortex, spatially selective neural activity persists during WM for location. However, to date, the necessity of these topographic subregions of human parietal cortex for WM remains unknown. To test the causal relationship of these areas to WM, we compared the performance of patients with lesions to topographically organized parietal cortex with those of controls on a memory-guided saccade (MGS) task as well as a visually guided saccade (VGS) task. The MGS task allowed us to measure WM precision continuously with great sensitivity, whereas the VGS task allowed us to control for any deficits in general spatial or visuomotor processing. Compared with controls, patients generated memory-guided saccades that were significantly slower and less accurate, whereas visually guided saccades were unaffected. These results provide key missing evidence for the causal role of topographic areas in human parietal cortex for WM, as well as the neural mechanisms supporting WM.
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York;
Wayne E
0000-0002-1577-9235
WE
Mackey
Department of Neurology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York;
Orrin
O
Devinsky
Department of Neurosurgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York; and.
Werner K
WK
Doyle
Department of Neurosurgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York; and.
John G
JG
Golfinos
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, New York; Center for Neural Science, New York University, New York, New York clayton.curtis@nyu.edu.
Clayton E
CE
Curtis
D000328:Adult; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005133:Eye Movements / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010296:Parietal Lobe / Q000473:pathology*; D011930:Reaction Time; D065852:Spatial Memory / Q000502:physiology*
intraparietal sulcus; lesion; posterior parietal cortex; saccade; topography; working memory