Dataset Information

Evaluating frontal and parietal contributions to spatial working memory with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.

ABSTRACT: Functional neuroimaging studies have produced contradictory data about the extent to which specific regions of the frontal and the posterior parietal cortices contribute to the retention of information in spatial working memory. We used high frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to assess the necessity for the short-term retention of spatial information of brain areas identified by previous functional imaging studies: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), frontal eye fields (FEF), superior parietal lobule (SPL) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS). 10 Hz rTMS spanned the 3-s delay period of a spatial delayed-recognition task. The postcentral gyrus (PCG) was included to control for any regionally non-specific effects of rTMS. The only regionally-specific effect was a significant decrease in reaction time when rTMS was applied to SPL. Additionally, rTMS lowered accuracy to a greater extent when applied to left than to right hemisphere, and was more disruptive when applied contralaterally vs. ipsilaterally to the visual field in which the memory probe was presented. Although seemingly paradoxical, the finding of rTMS-induced improvement in task performance has a precedent, and is consistent with the idea that regions associated with spatial sensory-motor processing make necessary contributions to the short-term retention of this information. Possible factors underlying rTMS-induced behavioral facilitation are considered.

SUBMITTER: Hamidi M

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2612637 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Evaluating frontal and parietal contributions to spatial working memory with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Hamidi Massihullah M Tononi Giulio G Postle Bradley R BR

Brain research 20080711

Functional neuroimaging studies have produced contradictory data about the extent to which specific regions of the frontal and the posterior parietal cortices contribute to the retention of information in spatial working memory. We used high frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to assess the necessity for the short-term retention of spatial information of brain areas identified by previous functional imaging studies: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), frontal eye fi ...[more]

PMID: 18662678

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Project description:Working memory is the ability to perform mental operations on information that is stored in a flexible, limited capacity buffer. The ability to manipulate information in working memory is central to many aspects of human cognition, but also declines with healthy aging. Given the profound importance of such working memory manipulation abilities, there is a concerted effort towards developing approaches to improve them. The current study tested the capacity to enhance working memory manipulation with online repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in healthy young and older adults. Online high frequency (5Hz) repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to test the hypothesis that active repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation would lead to significant improvements in memory recall accuracy compared to sham stimulation, and that these effects would be most pronounced in working memory manipulation conditions with the highest cognitive demand in both young and older adults. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation was applied while participants were performing a delayed response alphabetization task with three individually-titrated levels of difficulty. The left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex was identified by combining electric field modeling to individualized functional magnetic resonance imaging activation maps and was targeted during the experiment using stereotactic neuronavigation with real-time robotic guidance, allowing optimal coil placement during the stimulation. As no accuracy differences were found between young and older adults, the results from both groups were collapsed. Subsequent analyses revealed that active stimulation significantly increased accuracy relative to sham stimulation, but only for the hardest condition. These results point towards further investigation of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation for memory enhancement focusing on high difficulty conditions as those most likely to exhibit benefits.

Dataset Information

Evaluating frontal and parietal contributions to spatial working memory with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Publications

Evaluating frontal and parietal contributions to spatial working memory with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Similar Datasets

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