ISSN : 1226-9654
Maintenance and manipulation of representations in working memory (WM) is the foundation for all cognitive processing. This paper will review neuroimaging studies focusing on the maintenance process of WM. In the first section, brain regions that increase activity during maintenance in WM are examined separately for each domain of information. Next, the controversy on the principle of functional organization of the prefrontal cortex, namely the hypotheses of domain-specificity vs. process-specificity. In the second section, the cognitive nature of the sustained prefrontal activity associated with WM will be examined. The differential functions of the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex will be discussed in relation to mnemonic and extra-mnemonic processes. In the third section, the overlap between the mechanism of long-term and WM will be reviewed along with the introduction of the component process approach to cognitive neuroscience.
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