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Related Experiment Videos

A special role for numbers in working memory? An fMRI study.

Andre Knops1, Hans-Christoph Nuerk, Bruno Fimm

  • 1University Hospital of the RWTH Aachen University, Section Neuropsychology-Department of Neurology, Pauwelsstrasse 30, D-52057 Aachen, Germany. knops@neuropsych.rwth-aachen.de

Neuroimage
|August 13, 2005
PubMed
Summary

Numbers influence verbal working memory (vWM) tasks, challenging the idea of a purely phonological code. Brain activity in the intraparietal sulcus shows semantic effects of numbers and task demands in vWM.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Neuroimaging
  • Psychology

Background:

  • Verbal Working Memory (vWM) is traditionally believed to use a phonological code.
  • Numbers possess non-verbal semantic properties, specifically magnitude, which may influence vWM.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the impact of non-verbal semantics (number magnitude) and task demands on vWM.
  • To examine brain activity in the horizontal parts of the intraparietal sulcus (hIPS) during vWM tasks involving letters and numbers.

Main Methods:

  • Two variants of the n-back task (identity match and comparison) were used with letters and numbers.
  • Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed to measure brain activity in 16 participants.
  • Behavioral data on task performance were collected.

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Main Results:

  • Brain activity in the hIPS was modulated by stimulus type (letters vs. numbers) and task demands.
  • Numbers elicited greater hIPS activation than letters in the identity match task.
  • Letters elicited greater hIPS activation than numbers specifically in the comparison task.

Conclusions:

  • The findings suggest that vWM is not solely reliant on a phonological code.
  • Non-verbal semantic properties of stimuli, like number magnitude, influence vWM processing.
  • Task demands interact with stimulus semantics to shape neural activity in the hIPS during vWM.