Prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia contributions to visual working memory
Open Access
- 4 October 2010
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 107 (42), 18167-18172
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1007277107
Abstract
Visual working memory (VWM) is a remarkable skill dependent on the brain's ability to construct and hold an internal representation of the world for later comparison with an external stimulus. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) and basal ganglia (BG) interact within a cortical and subcortical network supporting VWM. We used scalp electroencephalography in groups of patients with unilateral PFC or BG lesions to provide evidence that these regions play complementary but dissociable roles in VWM. PFC patients show behavioral and electrophysiological deficits manifested by attenuation of extrastriate attention and VWM-related neural activity only for stimuli presented to the contralesional visual field. In contrast, patients with BG lesions show behavioral and electrophysiological VWM deficits independent of the hemifield of stimulus presentation but have intact extrastriate attention activity. The results support a model wherein the PFC is critical for top-down intrahemispheric modulation of attention and VWM with the BG involved in global support of VWM processes.Keywords
This publication has 55 references indexed in Scilit:
- Dynamic Neuroplasticity after Human Prefrontal Cortex DamageNeuron, 2010
- Keeping Memory Clear and Stable--The Contribution of Human Basal Ganglia and Prefrontal Cortex to Working MemoryJournal of Neuroscience, 2010
- Differential Dynamics of Activity Changes in Dorsolateral and Dorsomedial Striatal Loops during LearningNeuron, 2010
- What “Works” in Working Memory? Separate Systems for Selection and Updating of Critical InformationJournal of Neuroscience, 2009
- Learning Substrates in the Primate Prefrontal Cortex and Striatum: Sustained Activity Related to Successful ActionsNeuron, 2009
- A dopaminergic basis for working memory, learning and attentional shifting in ParkinsonismNeuropsychologia, 2008
- Neural Measures of Individual Differences in Selecting and Tracking Multiple Moving ObjectsJournal of Neuroscience, 2008
- Focal putamen lesions impair learning in rule-based, but not information-integration categorization tasksNeuropsychologia, 2006
- The Human Striatum is Necessary for Responding to Changes in Stimulus RelevanceJournal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2006
- Learning and Memory Functions of the Basal GangliaAnnual Review of Neuroscience, 2002