Decoding the Contents of Visual Short-Term Memory from Human Visual and Parietal Cortex
Decoding the Contents of Visual Short-Term Memory from Human Visual and Parietal Cortex
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DOI：
10.1523/jneurosci.0184-12.2012
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发表时间：
2012-09-19
影响因子：
5.3
通讯作者：
Haynes, John-Dylan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Christophel, Thomas B.;Hebart, Martin N.;Haynes, John-Dylan
视觉短期记忆（VSTM）过程中内容如何存储在人脑中仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。不同的理论假设记忆的刺激存储在前额叶、顶叶或视觉区域。为了区分这些理论，我们使用多元模式分类研究了 VSTM 任务期间来自不同大脑区域的 BOLD 信号的内容特异性。为了参与内存维护，候选区域需要了解内存中保存的不同内容的信息。我们确定了两个大脑区域，其中功能磁共振成像信号的局部模式代表了记忆的内容。除了先前在视觉区域中建立的存储之外，我们还在后顶叶皮层中发现了一个区域，其中的活动模式使我们能够解码记忆中保存的特定刺激。我们的结果表明 VSTM 中的存储超出了视觉区域，但没有发现额叶区域。因此，虽然额叶和顶叶区域通常在 VSTM 期间共同激活，但额顶叶网络中内容的维护可能仅限于顶叶皮层。
How content is stored in the human brain during visual short-term memory (VSTM) is still an open question. Different theories postulate storage of remembered stimuli in prefrontal, parietal, or visual areas. Aiming at a distinction between these theories, we investigated the content-specificity of BOLD signals from various brain regions during a VSTM task using multivariate pattern classification. To participate in memory maintenance, candidate regions would need to have information about the different contents held in memory. We identified two brain regions where local patterns of fMRI signals represented the remembered content. Apart from the previously established storage in visual areas, we also discovered an area in the posterior parietal cortex where activity patterns allowed us to decode the specific stimuli held in memory. Our results demonstrate that storage in VSTM extends beyond visual areas, but no frontal regions were found. Thus, while frontal and parietal areas typically coactivate during VSTM, maintenance of content in the frontoparietal network might be limited to parietal cortex.