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| Research article summary (published 30 Mar 2002): |
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Segregation of areas related to visual working memory in the prefrontal cortex revealed by rTMS.
Full Abstract
The functional organization of working memory (WM) in the human prefrontal cortex remains unclear. Storage and processing functions might be segregated in ventral and dorsal areas of the prefrontal cortex, respectively. If so, storage functions might be spared, irrespective of informational domain, following damage or dysfunction in dorsolateral areas. Alternatively, WM and prefrontal function in general might be segregated according to informational domains (e.g. spatial versus object-based information). In the present study we used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to directly test these competing hypotheses. We applied rTMS to transiently and selectively disrupt the function of the dorsomedial, dorsolateral or ventral prefrontal cortex in normal human volunteers performing either a spatial or a face-recognition delayed-response task. Performance in the spatial task was impaired by rTMS of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Performance in the face-recognition (non-spatial) task was impaired by rTMS of the ventral prefrontal cortex. Transient disruption of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affected performance in both tasks. These findings provide evidence of domain-specific segregation of WM functions in widely separated areas of prefrontal cortex.
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Author information
Author/s: Mottaghy, F M (FM); Gangitano, M (M); Sparing, R (R); Krause, B J (BJ); Pascual-Leone, A (A);
Affiliation: Laboratory for Magnetic Brain Stimulation, Department of Neurology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, 330 Brookline Avenue, Kirstein Building KS 454, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Grants: R01EY12091 (Agency:United States NEI) ; R01MH57980 (Agency:United States NIMH) ; R01MH60734 (Agency:United States NIMH)
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.
Journal: Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) (Cereb Cortex), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2002-Apr; vol 12 (issue 4) : pp 369-75
Dates: Created 2002/03/08; Completed 2002/05/02; Revised 2007/11/14;
PMID: 11884352, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
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