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Neural Substrates of Working Memory Updating.
Gal Nir-Cohen1, Yoav Kessler1, Tobias Egner2
1Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience
|September 8, 2020
Summary
The basal ganglia (BG) help open gates for working memory (WM) updating, but closing these gates does not rely on the BG. Updating WM involves both BG and sensory cortex, challenging existing models.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
- Human Brain Imaging
Background:
- Working memory (WM) requires balancing stability and flexibility.
- A basal ganglia (BG)-thalamus gating mechanism is proposed for selective WM updating.
- Previous research implicates PFC, BG, thalamus, and PPC in WM, but subprocess contributions are unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the specific roles of brain regions in WM updating subprocesses: gate opening, content substitution, and gate closing.
- To test the predictions of the BG-thalamus gating model of WM.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used.
- The reference-back task was employed to dissociate WM updating subprocesses.
- Participants alternated between updating and maintaining information in WM.
Main Results:
- Gate opening and content substitution showed activation in BG, thalamus, frontoparietal cortex, and fusiform face area (FFA).
- FFA activation suggests sensory cortex involvement in WM updating.
- Gate closing did not show reliable activation in the studied regions.
Conclusions:
- Findings support BG involvement in WM gate opening, aligning with the gating model.
- Results challenge the model by showing gate closing is not BG-dependent.
- WM gate opening involves both BG and task-relevant sensory cortex, like the FFA.
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