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Negative BOLD in sensory cortices during verbal memory: a component in generating internal representations?
Haim Azulay1, Ella Striem, Amir Amedi
1Department of Medical Neurobiology, Institute of Medical Research Israel-Canada, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91220, Israel.
Brain Topography
|March 28, 2009
Summary
Closing eyes during memory recall helps focus by deactivating irrelevant sensory areas. This brain mechanism, involving crossmodal deactivations, optimizes attention for retrieving internal information.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Psychology
Background:
- Individuals often close their eyes during memory retrieval.
- Brain mechanisms underlying this phenomenon are not fully understood.
- Previous research indicated auditory cortex deactivation during visual mental imagery.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if sensory cortex deactivation during memory retrieval is a general phenomenon.
- To explore crossmodal deactivations in sensory cortices irrelevant to memory tasks.
- To compare brain activity in sighted and congenitally blind individuals during abstract memory retrieval.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to scan participants.
- Participants performed a memory retrieval task involving abstract words.
- Two groups were studied: 9 sighted individuals and 10 congenitally blind individuals.
Main Results:
- Sighted subjects showed deactivation in both auditory and visual cortices during memory retrieval.
- Congenitally blind subjects exhibited auditory cortex deactivation but positive BOLD signal in visual areas.
- These findings suggest deactivation occurs in task-irrelevant sensory cortices during internal information retrieval.
Conclusions:
- Deactivation in sensory cortices is prominent when retrieving internally stored information.
- A task-dependent balance of activation and deactivation aids resource maximization and information filtering.
- The interplay of positive and negative BOLD signals is crucial for understanding cognitive functions and sensory processing.
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