title: The medial temporal lobe supports sensing-based visual working memory.
abstract: It is well established that the medial temporal lobe (MTL), including the hippocampus, is essential for long-term memory. In addition, recent studies suggest that the MTL may also support visual working memory (VWM), but the conditions under which the MTL plays a critical role are not yet clear. To address this issue, we used a color change detection paradigm to examine the effects of MTL damage on VWM by analyzing the receiver operating characteristics of patients with MTL damage and healthy age- and education-matched controls. Compared to controls, patients with MTL damage demonstrated significant reductions in VWM accuracy. Importantly, the patients were not impaired at making accurate high-confidence judgments that a change had occurred; however, they were impaired when making low-confidence responses indicating that they sensed whether or not there had been a visual change. Moreover, these impairments were observed under conditions that emphasized the retrieval of complex bindings or the retrieval of high-resolution bindings. That is, patients with MTL damage exhibited VWM impairments when they were required to remember either a larger number of low-resolution bindings (i.e., set size of 5 and obvious color changes) or a smaller number of high-resolution bindings (i.e., set size of 3 and subtle color changes). The results indicate that only some VWM processes are dependent on the MTL, and are consistent with the proposal that the MTL plays a critical role in forming complex, high-resolution bindings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA. Electronic address: rigoodrich@ucdavis.edu.
authors.forename: Robin I
authors.initials: RI
authors.lastname: Goodrich
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Andrew P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Yonelinas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000647:Amnesia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003118:Color Perception; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D012372:ROC Curve; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D013702:Temporal Lobe / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Amnesia; Hippocampus; Medial temporal lobe; Receiver operating characteristics; Working memory