Brain areas involved in spatial working memory
Publication year
2006Number of pages
10 p.
Source
Neuropsychologia, 44, 7, (2006), pp. 1185-1194ISSN
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor
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Organization
SW OZ DCC NRP
Geriatrics
Journal title
Neuropsychologia
Volume
vol. 44
Issue
iss. 7
Languages used
English (eng)
Page start
p. 1185
Page end
p. 1194
Subject
Cognitive neuroscience; DCN 1: Perception and Action; DCN 2: Functional Neurogenomics; EBP 1: Determinants of Health and Disease; EBP 2: Effective Hospital Care; NCEBP 11: Alzheimer Centre; NCEBP 8: Psychological determinants of chronic illness; UMCN 3.2: Cognitive neurosciencesAbstract
Spatial working memory entails the ability to keep spatial information active in working memory over a short period of time. To study the areas of the brain that are involved in spatial working memory, a group of stroke patients was tested with a spatial search task. Patients and healthy controls were asked to search through a number of boxes shown at different locations on a touch-sensitive computer screen in order to find a target object. In subsequent trials, new target objects were hidden in boxes that were previously empty. Within-search errors were made if a participant returned to an already searched box; between-search errors occurred if a participant returned to a box that was already known to contain a target item. The use of a strategy to remember the locations of the target objects was calculated as well. Damage to the right posterior parietal and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex impaired the ability to keep spatial information 'on-line', as was indicated by performance on the Corsi Block-Tapping task and the within-search errors. Moreover, patients with damage to the right posterior parietal cortex, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the hippocampal formation bilaterally made more between-search errors, indicating the importance of these areas in maintaining spatial information in working memory over an extended time period.
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