eprintid: 3538
rev_number: 6
eprint_status: archive
userid: 6
dir: disk0/00/00/35/38
datestamp: 2016-09-13 08:20:42
lastmod: 2016-09-13 08:20:42
status_changed: 2016-09-13 08:20:42
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
creators_name: Ricciardi, Emiliano
creators_name: Bonino, Daniela
creators_name: Gentili, Claudio
creators_name: Sani, Lorenzo
creators_name: Pietrini, Pietro
creators_name: Vecchi, Tomaso
creators_id: emiliano.ricciardi@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: 
creators_id: pietro.pietrini@imtlucca.it
creators_id: 
title: Neural correlates of spatial working memory in humans: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study comparing visual and tactile processes
ispublished: pub
subjects: RC0321
divisions: CSA
full_text_status: none
abstract: Recent studies of neural correlates of working memory components have identified both low-level perceptual processes and higher-order supramodal mechanisms through which sensory information can be integrated and manipulated. In addition to the primary sensory cortices, working memory relies on a widely distributed neural system of higher-order association areas that includes posterior parietal and occipital areas, and on prefrontal cortex for maintaining and manipulating information. The present study was designed to determine brain patterns of neural response to the same spatial working memory task presented either visually or in a tactile format, and to evaluate the relationship between spatial processing in the visual and tactile sensory modalities. Brain activity during visual and tactile spatial working memory tasks was measured in six young right-handed healthy male volunteers by using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results indicated that similar fronto-parietal networks were recruited during spatial information processing across the two sensory modalities—specifically the posterior parietal cortex, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex. These findings provide a neurobiological support to behavioral observations by indicating that common cerebral regions subserve generation of higher order mental representations involved in working memory independently from a specific sensory modality.
date: 2006-04
date_type: published
publication: Neuroscience
volume: 139
number: 1
publisher: Elsevier
pagerange: 339-349
id_number: doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2005.08.045
refereed: TRUE
issn: 0306-4522
official_url: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2005.08.045
citation:   Ricciardi, Emiliano and Bonino, Daniela and Gentili, Claudio and Sani, Lorenzo and Pietrini, Pietro and Vecchi, Tomaso  Neural correlates of spatial working memory in humans: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study comparing visual and tactile processes.  Neuroscience, 139 (1).  pp. 339-349.  ISSN 0306-4522      (2006)