Working Memory and the Hippocampus

A number of studies suggest an important role for the hippocampus in tasks involving visuospatial or relational working memory. We test the generality of this proposal across tasks using a battery designed to investigate the various components of working memory, studying the working memory performance of Jon, who shows a bilateral reduction in hippocampal volume of approximately 50%, comparing him to a group of 48 college students. We measure performance on four complex working memory span measures based on combining visuospatial and verbal storage with visuospatial or verbal concurrent processing as well as measuring Jon's ability to carry out the component storage and processing aspects of these tasks. Jon performed at a consistently high level across our range of tasks. Possible reasons for the apparent disparity between our own findings and earlier studies showing a hippocampal deficit are discussed in terms of both the potential differences in the demands placed on relational memory and of the proposed distinction between egocentric and allocentric visuospatial processing.

[1]  A. Soliman,et al.  Measurement Invariance of Working Memory Measures across Two Arab Cultures , 2012, Perceptual and motor skills.

[2]  Mario A. Parra,et al.  Short-term memory binding is impaired in AD but not in non-AD dementias , 2012, Neuropsychologia.

[3]  M. Mishkin,et al.  Developmental amnesia associated with early hypoxic-ischaemic injury. , 2000, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[4]  P. Carpenter,et al.  Individual differences in working memory and reading , 1980 .

[5]  Alan D. Baddeley,et al.  The Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test - Extended Version , 1999 .

[6]  Neal J. Cohen,et al.  The Long and the Short of It: Relational Memory Impairments in Amnesia, Even at Short Lags , 2006, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[7]  R. Engle,et al.  Individual differences in working memory capacity and what they tell us about controlled attention, general fluid intelligence, and functions of the prefrontal cortex. , 1999 .

[8]  Alan D Baddeley,et al.  The complexities of complex span: explaining individual differences in working memory in children and adults. , 2003, Journal of experimental psychology. General.

[9]  A. Baddeley.  Working Memory, Thought, and Action , 2007 .

[10]  Ingrid R. Olson,et al.  Working Memory for Conjunctions Relies on the Medial Temporal Lobe , 2006, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[11]  Gordon D A Brown,et al.  Restoring primacy in amnesic free recall: Evidence for the recency theory of primacy , 2011, Cognitive neuropsychology.

[12]  Faraneh Vargha-Khadem,et al.  Is the hippocampus necessary for visual and verbal binding in working memory? , 2010, Neuropsychologia.

[13]  A. Baddeley.  The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory? , 2000, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[14]  A. Baddeley,et al.  Amnesia and the distinction between long- and short-term memory. , 1970 .

[15]  M. Goodale,et al.  The visual brain in action , 1995 .

[16]  M. Goodale,et al.  Separate visual pathways for perception and action , 1992, Trends in Neurosciences.

[17]  A M Taylor,et al.  Immediate Memory for Faces: Long- or Short-Term Memory? , 1973, The Quarterly journal of experimental psychology.

[18]  J. Deese.  The psychology of learning , 1952 .

[19]  Mortimer Mishkin,et al.  Preserved Recognition in a Case of Developmental Amnesia: Implications for the Acaquisition of Semantic Memory? , 2001, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[20]  G. Scialfa,et al.  Anatomy of the Episodic Buffer: A Voxel-Based Morphometry Study in Patients with Dementia , 2008, Behavioural neurology.

[21]  Anjan Chatterjee,et al.  Visual Working Memory Is Impaired when the Medial Temporal Lobe Is Damaged , 2006, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[22]  C. Jarrold,et al.  Variation in Working Memory Due to Typical and Atypical Developement , 2007 .

[23]  M. D’Esposito.  Working memory. , 2008, Handbook of clinical neurology.

[24]  Neil Burgess,et al.  Studies of the neural basis of human navigation and memory , 2003 .

[25]  John D E Gabrieli,et al.  Working memory and long‐term memory for faces: Evidence from fMRI and global amnesia for involvement of the medial temporal lobes , 2006, Hippocampus.

[26]  L. Nyberg,et al.  Neural representation of binding lexical signs and words in the episodic buffer of working memory , 2007, Neuropsychologia.

[27]  B. Milner.  Amnesia following operation on the temporal lobes , 1996 .

[28]  D G Gadian,et al.  Dissociations in cognitive memory: the syndrome of developmental amnesia. , 2001, Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences.

[29]  Mark T. Keane,et al.  Cognitive Psychology: A Student's Handbook , 1990 .

[30]  A. Baddeley,et al.  The Psychology of Learning and Motivation , 1974 .

[31]  Mm. Liabre.  Standard Progressive Matrices , 1984 .

[32]  R. Kessels,et al.  Context Memory in Korsakoff’s Syndrome , 2012, Neuropsychology Review.

[33]  Markus Hoffmann,et al.  Beckers, K., Behrends, U. & Canavan, A. (1992). Der Rivermead Behavioural Memory Test. Flempton Bury St Edmunds: Thames Valley Test Company. Preis: DM 460,-. , 1999 .

[34]  Ramona O Hopkins,et al.  Working Memory and the Organization of Brain Systems , 2008, The Journal of Neuroscience.

[35]  N. Burgess,et al.  The hippocampus is required for short‐term topographical memory in humans , 2007, Hippocampus.

[36]  I. Olson,et al.  The medial temporal lobe and visual working memory: Comparisons across tasks, delays, and visual similarity , 2008, Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience.

[37]  Alan D. Baddeley,et al.  "How does processing affect storage in working memory tasks? Evidence for both domain-general and domain-specific effects": Correction to Jarrold et al. (2011). , 2011 .

[38]  L. Squire,et al.  The structure and organization of memory. , 1993, Annual review of psychology.

[39]  M. Daneman,et al.  Working memory and language comprehension: A meta-analysis , 1996, Psychonomic bulletin & review.