1 Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, KU Leuven, Medical School, Campus Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven and , 2 Centrum voor Positron Emissie Tomografie, Departement Nucleaire Geneeskunde, UZ Gasthuisberg, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium
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Abstract |
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Introduction |
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We therefore refer to the mnemonic component of successive discrimination as ultra-short-term memory, which represents one extreme of the short-term memory/working memory spectrum (Fig. 1). At the opposite end lies working memory or operant memory (Fuster, 1995
), which includes the maintenance (i.e. storage and rehearsal) of multiple items, whether or not accompanied by manipulation, with storage and rehearsal of a single item in short-term or immediate memory (Fuster, 1995
) in between.
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To decide between these two hypotheses, we have mapped the memory-related processes at the extremes of the visual short-term memory/working memory spectrum. By definition, its lower end is engaged by successive discrimination tasks. To investigate its upper end, we chose the N-back paradigm (Kirchner, 1958). We used the attribute orientation, the coding of which is well known (Hubel and Wiesel, 1968
), to avoid the intrusion of non-essential processes. Its elementary nature and presentation in the central visual field avoided the necessity of processing object identity and spatial location, respectively. The presentation of oblique orientations prevented the use of vestibular cues (Brandt et al., 1994
) or verbal codes that could be rehearsed using articulatory mechanisms. Finally, this attribute enabled us to equate performance levels among tasks.
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Materials and Methods |
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Fourteen male volunteers (mean age 24.4 years, range 1927 years) participated in the study. They were strictly right-handed as judged by the Edinburgh inventory and had no evidence of neurological/psychiatric history, pathology or drug abuse. They all had normal or corrected-to-normal vision and a normal brain structure as visualized by MRI. Scanning procedures were undertaken with the understanding and written consent of each subject, in accordance with the Declaration of Human Rights, Helsinki, 1974. The study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Medical School, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. Subjects were trained in two sessions before scanning.
Stimulus Characteristics
Physical stimulus characteristics were chosen in accordance with the study of Orban and co-workers (Orban et al., 1997) and were identical among all tasks: a small static square wave grating (4° diameter, mean luminance 23.1 cd/m2, contrast 90%, cycle width 1.3°) was presented in the central visual field. In all conditions subjects were instructed to fixate a central red fixation point. In both the experimental and control conditions phase was randomized between trials and noise was superimposed on the edges of the bars, preventing subjects from using cues other than orientation. Half of the subjects were presented only with orientations between 20 and 70°, the other half with orientations between 110 and 160°. No cardinal (vertical or horizontal) orientations were shown, to avoid verbal and semantic encoding. The stimuli were displayed on a high resolution color screen (Philips Brilliance 2120, horizontal width 380 mm, vertical height 285 mm, resolution 800 x 600 pixels, refresh rate 78 Hz non-interlaced), hosted by a 486 TIGA work- station. The monitor was mounted above the scanner bed at an angle of 52° relative to the horizontal. Subjects viewed the stimuli binocularly in a dimly lit room (0.07 cd/m2) from a fixed distance of 114 cm.
Task Configuration
1back and 2back were used as working memory tasks, with 0back as the control task. The N-back paradigm refers to a serial recognition task in which the target is continuously changing. In the 0back task subjects were instructed to identify the orientation of a single initially specified target grating. In the 1back task they compared each grating to the one immediately before in the sequence. In the 2back task each grating was compared with the one presented two trials earlier (Fig. 2). Time settings were chosen in accordance with Jonides and co-workers (Jonides et al., 1997
): stimuli were presented for 500 ms at a rate of 20 stimuli/min in all three conditions (interstimulus interval 2500 ms). Motor output was conditional-associative: subjects pressed a right-hand key for an identical orientation and a left-hand key for a different orientation. Motor responses were allowed at any point during the interstimulus interval, with the instruction to press as soon as a decision was made. All three conditions were matched for the number of left and right motor responses prepared and executed. Mnemonic as well as non-mnemonic demands gradually increase from 0back through 1back to 2back. Indeed, the number of items to be stored gradually increases. With regard to the executive processes, the 1back task involves an updating or reshuffling operation, i.e. the operation of entering a new item in the memory store and removing an old one upon each new stimulus presentation. The 2back task involves at least three executive operations. In addition to updating, the task involves temporal coding, which is the need to assign a temporal order to the current memory set, in order to facilitate item-by-item updating and matching with the correct item. The 2back task also involves resistance to the influence of interfering stimuli or distracters, a term which refers to the need to maintain items in store despite processing the subsequent stimulus.
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The successive orientation discrimination or temporal same different (TSD) task of Orban et al. (1997) was used as the ultra-short-term memory task, with orientation identification (ID) as the control task. Two different presentation rates were used: 70 stimuli/min in the TSDfast task, corresponding to 35 trials/min, with IDfast as the control task, to replicate the rate of the previous study (Orban et al., 1997), and 20 stimuli/min in the TSDslow task (10 trials/min), with IDslow as the control task, to use the same stimulus rate as used in the working memory tasks (Fig. 2
). Inter-trial intervals lasted 413 and 357 ms during the TSDfast and IDfast tasks, respectively, whereas they occupied 4700 and 2500 ms during the TSDslow and IDslow tasks, respectively. Note that to keep visual input constant among all seven tasks, we used a stimulus presentation time of 500 ms, which is different from the 300 ms duration used in the study of Orban and co-workers (Orban et al., 1997
). In the TSD task each trial involved the successive presentation of two gratings, bridging a non-distracted delay interval of 300 ms. This delay was identical in the TSDslow and TSDfast trials. However, over a 60 s data acquisition period (see below) active storage took 3.5 times longer in TSDfast compared with TSDslow. Whereas all stimuli had orientations within 5° of the vertical meridian in our previous study, all orientations presented here belonged to the 2070° or 110160° range. The orientation difference
between two successive gratings was adapted individually for the two TSD tasks, using the results from the second training session as a guide. Subjects were asked to press the left-hand key for two different orientations and the right-hand key for two identical orientations, within 600 ms after the onset of each second stimulus presentation. The ID control task was adapted from the study of Orban and co-workers (Orban et al., 1997
): subjects were presented with oblique orientations that were tilted either
/2° (press right) or +
/2° (press left) from a reference orientation. They were asked to press the keys within 600 ms after onset of each stimulus presentation. Half of the subjects were trained for two reference orientations (one for IDslow and one for IDfast) between 20 and 70° and the other half for two reference orientations between 110 and 160°. Across all subjects, 28 different reference orientations were presented during scanning. The ID task matches the TSD task for visual processing, attention demands and type of motor decision. Differential activity between the two tasks reflects ultra-short-term storage of orientation and temporal comparison.
In order to equate the visual input among all tasks and all subjects, stimulus presentation during the N-back and TSD tasks was programmed to include as many orientations in the 2070° or 110160° range as possible and to distribute them equally among all subjects. Also, all 28 reference orientations used in the two ID tasks were chosen to cover the two orientation ranges as homogeneously as possible, taking into account each subject's orientation threshold. A KolmogorovSmirnov test for distribution fitting (CSS software) was performed to test whether or not during acquisition the visual input was matched among tasks.
Training Sessions
Prior to the scanning session, subjects were trained in two 1.5 h sessions. As soon as performance in a task reached a steady level of 8085% correct, the orientation difference was gradually decreased for that task. The 2back task required more training than the other tasks to reach stable performance. The
for which the subjects reached 80% correct at the end of the second training session was then used in the corresponding condition of the PET study. No auditory feedback was provided during training or PET acquisition.
We attempted to equate the level of performance among tasks by adjusting the orientation differences. Although some of the manipulations of difficulty level, such as image degradation, both decrease accuracy and increase reaction times (Grady et al., 1996), manipulating the orientation difference or the presentation rate within one of the present tasks changes only the performance level, while reaction times only slightly increased (Cornette et al., 1999
) (also A. Rosier, unpublished observations). Thus, increases in reaction times among tasks largely reflect the increased computational demands.
It is noteworthy that the application of phase randomization prevented subjects from using alternative strategies based on apparent motion detection rather than successive orientation discrimination. Additional psychophysical testing in which both phase randomization and delay interval between successive stimuli were omitted resulted in extremely low orientation differences ( ~ 12°) for a performance level of 8085% correct. These thresholds differ significantly from
commonly reached at the end of the second training session for the standard TSDfast task (
~ 810°), indicating that subjects did not use apparent motion cues in the standard TSDfast task.
Statistical Analysis of Behavioral Data
Performance, expressed as the percent correct responses, was normalized to Z scores (CSS software) and analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) and post hoc comparisons for significance (Scheffé test). In all analyses, the number of memory tasks was included as a repetitive factor within each subject. The mean reaction times were calculated as the average of all latencies corresponding to trials in which subjects responded within the response window.
Data Acquisition
Brain activity was monitored as the relative change in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) using the H215O method (Fox et al., 1986). All measurements were performed in 3D mode with a Siemens CTI Ecat Exact HR+ (Brix et al., 1997
). Subjects were not allowed to speak during the procedure and had been instructed not to think of anything in particular, apart from concentrating on the stimulus and the task. The room was kept as quiet as possible. The head was immobilized with a foam headholder (Smither Medical Products, Akron, OH). Each subject had a catheter inserted into the left brachial vein for tracer administration. Accuracy of fixation was monitored with electro-oculographical recordings (EOG), using contact electrodes placed on the outer ocular canthi and a reference electrode placed between the eyes. Before each experiment, this EOG was calibrated for fixation and for horizontally visually guided saccades of 2 and 4° amplitude. A transmission scan was taken (68Ge rod sources) to correct for attenuation. The start of each task coincided with the i.v. injection of 300 MBq H215O (half-life 123 s) over 12 s. Each subject performed all seven tasks twice, with a 10 min interval between two successive injections. Different orientations were used in these replications. This yielded 14 emission scans per subject and 28 emission scans per task. The order in which tasks were presented was randomized both within and between subjects. Data acquisition (60 s) began as soon as the intracranial radioactivity count rate rose sharply, i.e. usually ~40 s after injection. Total duration of each task performed was 150 s. The attenuation-corrected data were reconstructed using the reprojection algorithm (Kinahan and Rogers, 1989
) resulting in 63 planes (plane separation 2.425 mm). The integrated radioactivity counts were used as a measure of rCBF.
Data Analysis
Analysis was done on Sun SPARC computers (Sun Microsystems, Mountain View, CA) with the Statistical Parametric Mapping software (Wellcome Department of Cognitive Neurology, London, UK), version SPM96, implemented in MATLAB (Mathworks Inc., Sherborn, MA).
Realignment and Spatial Normalization
The scans from each subject were realigned using the first scan as a reference. The six parameters of this rigid body transformation were estimated using a least squares approach. Images were subsequently stereotactically transformed to a standard template in the Talairach space (Talairach and Tournoux, 1988). This normalizing spatial transformation matches each scan (in a least squares sense) to a reference or template image that already conforms to the standard space. The procedure involves a 12 parameter affine (linear) and quadratic (non-linear) 3-dimensional transformation, followed by a 2-dimensional piece-wise (transverse slices) non-linear matching, using a set of smooth basic functions that allows for normalization at a finer anatomical scale (Friston et al., 1995a
). Finally, images were smoothed with an isotropic Gaussian kernel of 16 mm full width at half-maximal (FWHM). The final image smoothness estimates (FWHM) were x = 22.0, y = 24.4, z = 18.8 mm.
Statistical Analysis
Statistical parametric maps (SPMs) are spatially extended statistical processes used to characterize regionally specific effects in imaging data, combining the general linear model (to create the statistical map of SPM) and the theory of Gaussian fields (to make statistical inferences about regional effects) (Friston et al., 1991, 1994
; Worsley et al., 1992
). The statistical analysis can be regarded as an ANCOVA, as the design matrix includes global brain activity as a covariate of no interest fixed at 50 ml/dl min (Friston et al., 1995b
). The condition, subject and covariate effects are estimated according to the general linear model at each voxel. To test hypotheses about regionally specific condition effects, the estimates were compared using linear contrasts. The resulting set of voxel values for each contrast constitute a statistical parametric map of the t-statistic SPM{t}. These SPM{t} values were then transformed to the unit normal distribution (SPM{Z}). Activations reaching Pcorr < 0.05 (corrected for multiple comparisons) for peak height (Z
4.40) were considered significant. Regions significant at Puncorr < 0.001 (uncorrected for multiple comparisons) for height (Z
3.09) were considered equally significant only if based upon an a priori hypothesis. Other activation sites significant at Puncorr < 0.001 for height were added for descriptive purpose.
MRI Template
Each subject also underwent a high resolution MRI scan of the brain, using a 3D Magnetization Prepared Rapid Gradient Echo (MPRAGE) sequence (Mugler and Brookeman, 1990). Acquisition parameters were: repetition time 10 ms, echo time 4 ms, flip angle 8°, field of view 256 mm, acquisition matrix 256 x 256. The 3D volume had a thickness of 160 mm, partitioned into 128 sagittal slices. MRI images of each subject were registered to the corresponding PET images using the Multi-modality Image Registration algorithm based on Information Theory (MIRIT) (Maes et al., 1997
). The same transformations into the standard space as those that were used for the PET images were applied to the resampled (and registered) MRI images. An average (n = 14) MRI image in the standard space was constructed and the thresholded parametric maps were projected onto these images for visualization.
Planned Analysis
In keeping with other N-back working memory studies, we used the subtraction [2back 0back] to characterize the network involved in orientation working memory. The 1back task was used only to describe the activity in the regions obtained by this subtraction. The regions involved in ultra-short-term memory during orientation discrimination were characterized for the two rates by the subtractions [TSDslow IDslow] and [TSDfast IDfast].
To test whether the mnemonic components of the 2back and the successive discrimination tasks engaged separate cortical regions, we first tested all regions resulting from the subtraction [2back 0back] for their significance in [2back 0back] [TSDslow IDslow] as well as in [2back 0back] [TSDfast IDfast]. Similarly, all regions resulting from the subtraction [TSDfast IDfast] were tested for their significance in [TSDfast IDfast] [2back 0back] and all regions resulting from the subtraction [TSDslow IDslow] for their significance in [TSDslow IDslow] [2back 0back]. Regions were considered specifically related to either ultra-short-term or working memory mnemonic components if they reached Puncorr < 0.001 in both the simple subtraction isolating a memory type and the contrasts directly comparing the two types of short-term memory/working memory. This procedure (Haxby et al., 1994) avoids considering regions which reach significance in the direct comparisons of ultra-short-term and working memory mnemonic components because of deactivation in the second element of these comparisons.
Alternatively, we applied a conjunction analysis (Price and Friston, 1996) to investigate whether regions resulting from a series of independent (i.e. orthogonal) task pairs were jointly significant in ultra-short-term and working memory. We first investigated which voxels reached a non-stringent criterion of Puncorr < 0.05 for height in the orthogonal contrasts [2back 0back] and [TSDslow IDslow]. Since storage activity in ultra-short-term memory at the fast rate lasts 3.5 times longer than at the slow rate, we then performed the same analysis between the three orthogonal contrasts [2back 0back], [TSDslow IDslow] and [TSDfast IDfast].
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Results |
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Group analysis (n = 14) revealed that the distributions of the orientations presented in both the 2070° and 110160° ranges were similar among the various tasks (Fig. 3). In this regard, no significant differences were found when comparing the distributions of 2back to 0back, TSDslow to IDslow, TSDfast to IDfast or 2back to TSDslow tasks (KolmogorovSmirnov, P > 0.5). Hence, the visual input was matched among all tasks that were compared in the subtractive design.
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During scanning, mean performance in the different tasks ranged between 83 and 87% correct (Fig. 4A). This was similar to the performance at the end of the second training session, indicating that little additional learning occurred during the scanning. More importantly, accuracy did not differ significantly between conditions (repeated measures ANOVA, F[6,78] = 1.31, P > 0.2). To achieve this equal performance, the orientation difference
was systematically varied between tasks (repeated measures ANOVA, F[6,78] = 26.25, P < 106), being larger in the computationally more demanding tasks (Fig. 4B
). The value of
was significantly higher in the 2back task than in the 0back (Scheffé test, P < 105) and 1back tasks (Scheffé test, P < 106), as well as in the two TSD tasks compared with their respective ID tasks (Scheffé tests P < 0.05 and P < 103 for slow and fast tasks, respectively). The mean
was 9.6° for the TSDfast task and 8.1° for the IDfast task, respectively, which is clearly higher than the mean values used in the study of Orban and co-workers (Orban et al., 1997
), where the average
was 4.6° in the TSDfast task and 3° in the IDfast task. This difference in all likelihood reflects the oblique effect in orientation discrimination (Orban et al., 1984
; Regan and Beverley, 1985
; Heeley et al., 1997
). Indeed, in the present study only oblique orientations were presented, whereas in the previous study all stimuli had orientations within 5° of the vertical.
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Subjects maintained fixation well during the different tasks, as witnessed by the electro-oculographical recordings. Two saccades were found in one subject, whereas all other traces were virtually identical to the fixation trace of the calibration.
Working Memory: Subtraction [2back 0back]
The aim of subtracting the 0back task from the 2back task was to determine which areas are involved in working memory for orientation, either in storage or in executive processes. As shown in Table 1 (columns 3 and 4) and Figure 5
, three left hemispheric regions reached the Pcorr < 0.05 level for height: the left middle frontal gyrus (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, DLPFC, BA 9/46), the left superior frontal sulcus (SFS, straddling BA 6 and dorsal area 8A [8Ad]) (Petrides and Pandya, 1999
) and the left supramarginal gyrus (BA 40). Their activity profiles, i.e. the adjusted rCBF plotted for all tasks, demonstrate a similar monotonous, linear increase of rCBF going from the 0back through 1back to 2back tasks (Fig. 6A
). This load-related effect suggests that activity in these areas indexes executive working memory operations for orientation. Equating visual input across experimental and baseline tasks controls for the fact that prefrontal neurons are responsive to visual stimuli (Ó Scalaidhe et al., 1999
). Hence, the recruitment of prefrontal regions during working memory can only be related to mnemonic and/or executive processes. Moreover, little or no change in activity was observed in any of these three areas during the four ultra-short-term memory conditions. An exception is the left SFS, in which both ID tasks evoked slightly more differential activity than their corresponding TSD tasks. The precise topography of the local maxima of this fronto-parietal circuit is shown for three representative subjects in Figure 5
. The most significant voxel of the DLPFC region is located on the superior bank of the inferior frontal sulcus. The SFS region is located on the lateral bank of the superior frontal sulcus, anterior to its junction with the precentral sulcus, corresponding to the most cranial part of the middle frontal gyrus. This SFS region (Talairach coordinates [26 4 62]) is situated more than 20 mm anterior and superior to the frontal eye fields, the coordinates of which are [39 15 38] and [33 15 48] according to Petit and co-workers (Petit et al., 1997
). The most active voxel of the supramarginal gyrus region is located on the upper bank of the posterior part of the Sylvian fissure. Although the three significant regions are located in the left hemisphere, it is worth noting that a right-sided SFS region symmetrical to the left BA 6/8Ad was significant at Puncorr < 0.001. Other regions significant at Puncorr < 0.001 (Fig. 5
and Table 1
) were the left superior parietal lobe (BA 7), a left and right premotor region (BA 6/44, both extending posteriorly from the SFS activation), a left middle frontal region (BA 46, extending anteriorly from left DLPFC), as well as right inferior and right middle cerebellum. Only one region in the left middle temporal gyrus (BA 21) reached Puncorr < 0.001 in the opposite subtraction [0back 2back] (Fig. 5
).
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Ultra-short-term Memory: Subtraction [TSDfast IDfast]
We determined the regions specifically involved in ultra-short- term memory for orientation by subtracting the ID from the TSD tasks, starting with the rate of 70 stimuli/min, since this rate was used in our previous orientation discrimination study (Orban et al., 1997). In that study the activation of the right middle fusiform gyrus [38, 50, 12] was attributed to storage and temporal comparison of orientations. Given this a priori knowledge, the activation observed here in the right middle fusiform gyrus at the Puncorr < 0.001 level (Table 2
, columns 3 and 4) is considered significant. The three right fusiform activation sites, listed in Table 2
, covered a large part of the middle fusiform gyrus, extending into the occipito-temporal sulcus (Talairach coordinates range from x = 38 to 52, y = 50 to 64 and z = 4 to 14). The activity profile (Fig. 6B
) demonstrates that this region is not differentially active during the working memory conditions and that its activity increases with the rate of visual stimulation, since activity increases in the IDfast task compared with IDslow. We also observed a significant activation (Pcorr < 0.05) of the left posterior part of the lingual gyrus (BA 18) (Table 2
), which we had not previously observed (Orban et al., 1997
; Dupont et al., 1998
). Its activity profile is highly comparable with that of the right middle fusiform gyrus (Fig. 6B
). Several other occipito-temporal regions were significant at Puncorr < 0.001, including the right transverse occipital sulcus (BA 18/19, Fig. 6B
) and right parahippocampal (BA 28/36), left middle fusiform (BA 19/37) and left superior temporal gyri (BA 38). Finally, a weak left parieto-occipital sulcus (BA 31) activation was observed.
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To exclude any rate effect, we next subtracted ID from TSD for the presentation rate of 20 stimuli/min, the same as that applied during the working memory tasks. Interestingly, the regions involved during successive discrimination at a slow rate differed from those involved at a fast rate. A significant (Pcorr < 0.05) activation was observed in the left superior frontal gyrus (BA 9), anterior to DLPFC (Table 3, columns 3 and 4). Its activity profile (Fig. 6C
) indicates that this region was nearly as active in the 2back task as in the TSDslow task. Regions significant at Puncorr < 0.001 were located mainly in the temporal cortex, involving the right inferior temporal gyrus (BA 20, Fig. 6C
) and right middle temporal gyrus (BA 21/37). Activity remained unchanged during working memory conditions in these two regions. In the left hemisphere the middle temporal gyrus (BA 21), the middle occipital gyrus (BA 19) and the parahippocampal gyrus (BA 28/36) were weakly activated (Puncorr < 0.001). Finally, both the posterior (BA 31, Fig. 6C
) and anterior (BA 24/32) cingulate also exhibited weak differential activity.
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If the mnemonic components of the working memory tasks are really distinct from those active in ultra-short-term memory, one predicts that the regions revealed by the subtraction [2back 0back] would still reach significance in the direct comparison of [2back 0back] with [TSDslow IDslow] or [TSDfast IDfast] (Table 1, columns 5 and 6). These comparisons uniquely test for differences in mnemonic components, excluding differences in the number of stimuli to be stored, decisions and motor responses. All three regions significant at Pcorr < 0.05 in [2back 0back] remained significant at Puncorr < 0.001 in the two direct mnemonic comparisons (Table 1
), as could be expected from their activity profiles (Fig. 6A
). Moreover, with the exception of two cerebellar foci, all regions significant at Puncorr < 0.001 in [2back 0back] remained significant at this level when subtracting [TSDslow IDslow] or [TSDfast IDfast] from [2back 0back].
We also tested the regions involved in ultra-short-term memory for their residual activity level after subtracting [2back 0back]. Both posterior lingual and middle fusiform gyri that were significant in the subtraction [TSDfast IDfast] remained significant at Puncorr < 0.001 (Table 2, column 5). All other regions retained Puncorr < 0.01. Similarly, most regions yielded by [TSDslow IDslow], including the right middle temporal cortex, remained significant at Puncorr < 0.001, with three regions reaching Puncorr < 0.01 (Table 3
, column 5).
To complete the demonstration of a functional dissociation, we investigated the conjunction between the subtractions [2back 0back] and [TSDslow IDslow], yielding a significant activation in the left anterior superior frontal gyrus ([28 40 30], Pcorr = 0.019) and a non-significant activation in the right cerebellum ([18 56 38], Pcorr = 0.159). If the left superior frontal gyrus region reflected storage, it should still remain significant when the subtraction [TSDfast IDfast] was also included in the conjunction, since total storage lasted 3.5 times longer in the TSDfast task compared with the TSDslow task. However, no voxels remained jointly significant in the latter conjunction.
The functional dissociation between orientation working memory and ultra-short-term orientation memory is illustrated in Figure 7, in which regions significant in the direct comparisons of the mnemonic components are displayed on a rendered brain. Clearly, orientation working memory engages fronto-parietal regions, while ultra-short-term memory for orientation engages occipito-temporal regions. Apparently, the occipito-temporal cortex of the two hemispheres seems engaged by ultra-short- term memory. The left temporal activation sites of Figure 7
, however, correspond to a deactivation in the 2-back task (see Fig. 5
). Thus only the right temporal sites correspond to activation in the TSD task. At first glance, the TSDslow and TSDfast tasks engaged disjunct regions in the right occipito-temporal cortex. This only reflects the stringent statistical criteria. Indeed, to investigate the impact of trial rate on successive discrimination in more detail, we calculated the percent change in differential activity between the TSD and ID tasks at several positions across the occipito-temporal cortex, i.e. from the right middle fusiform site, yielded by [TSDfast IDfast] (A in Fig. 7
), to the right middle temporal site, yielded by [TSDslow IDslow] (B in Fig. 7
), extending the probing into more anterior portions of temporal cortex. The percent change in rCBF in TSD compared with ID is plotted as a function of position for the fast and slow rates (Fig. 7
). This spatial profile of neuronal activity shows that a large expense (~6 cm) of right occipito-temporal cortex is engaged in ultra-short-term memory for orientation. Posterior occipito-temporal regions are involved in ultra-short-term memory at a fast rate, while more anterior temporal regions are recruited during ultra-short-term memory at a slow rate. The reversal point is located between 50 and 40 mm in y Talairach coordinates.
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Discussion |
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Design Issues
The current tasks were equated not only for visual input, but also for level of performance by adapting the orientation difference between successive stimuli per subject and per task. In the current tasks difficulty is reflected mainly in performance level rather than in reaction times (see Materials and Methods). Although psychometric matching of tasks does not affect the mnemonic processes involved, the procedure ensures that differences in rCBF between tasks are not confounded by differences in task difficulty. Indeed, the prefrontal regions engaged by difficulty (Grady et al., 1996
; Barch et al., 1997
; Elliott et al., 1999
; Sunaert et al., 1999
) are located in front and below those observed in the present study.
The use of multiple (4), closely spaced orientations, which in addition changed in each 150 s run, made it impossible for subjects to use verbal labels. This was indicated by the sudden decrease in performance as soon as the number of orientations exceeded two or three, as well as by debriefing of the subjects. It may be that this use of a visual strategy enhanced the rehearsal and executive components of the 2back task. The use of oblique orientations and phase randomization excluded the contribution of vestibular, position or rotation cues.
The null hypothesis tested required us to compare the neural substrate at the extremes of the short-term memory/working memory spectrum. We therefore carefully matched the experimental tasks (TSD and 2back) with specific control tasks (ID and 0back, respectively). For instance, the 0back control task was equated with the 2back task for visual processing, attention demands, number and type of decisions and number of motor responses. Since subjects had to remember a predetermined orientation throughout the 0back task, it could be argued that this additional mnemonic component reduces differential activity between the experimental task and this control (D'Esposito et al., 1998a). The activity profiles of the left-sided parietal and prefrontal regions indicate that such a mnemonic component was not involved (Fig. 6A
). Although we also performed the subtraction [2back IDs], we preferred to use the subtraction [2back 0back] because in these two tasks the type of decision (same or different) is the same.
Any subtraction directly involving the intermediate 1back task (i.e. [2back 1back] and [1back 0back]) was redundant in the testing of our null hypothesis. Other studies have performed such direct comparisons using letters (Jonides et al., 1997) and have provided evidence that as N increases, brain activation monotonically increases in a large number of regions related to working memory processes, as was the case in the three fronto-parietal regions engaged by orientation working memory (Fig. 6
).
Orientation Ultra-short-term Memory: Impact of Trial Rate in Occipito-temporal Cortex
A large portion of the occipito-temporal cortex was involved in successive discrimination of orientation. This is in agreement with monkey lesion studies. Vogels and co-workers observed that only a complete infero-temporal (IT) lesion, but not a lesion restricted to the posterior or anterior part of IT, impaired successive orientation discrimination (Vogels et al., 1997). This study and its physiological counterpart (Vogels and Orban, 1994
) were performed at 11 trials/min. Higher trial rates have not been tested in the monkey. Yet, the current results suggest a rate- dependent segregation within the occipito-temporal cortex during ultra-short-term memory (Fig. 7
). To investigate the impact of trial rate in more detail, we performed a control PET study (Cornette et al., 1999
), engaging 12 subjects in an identical successive orientation discrimination task, but now compared to a simple fixation (FIX) task. This baseline matches better the single cell studies, in which neuronal activity during a short-term memory/working memory task is generally compared with spontaneous activity (Miller et al., 1993
). TSD task trial rate was parametrically varied among six experimental conditions. Percent change in activity in TSD compared with FIX (Fig. 8
) was investigated in voxels closely matching the trajectory outlined in Figure 7
(see the figure legend for further details). This control study clarifies the rate-sensitive antero-posterior gradient across the occipito-temporal cortex. Indeed, compared with FIX, successive orientation discrimination at slow trial rates involved a large expanse of the occipito-temporal cortex, in agreement with the study of Vogels and co-workers (Vogels et al., 1997
). In fact, for slow rates, activity increased from the posterior to anterior occipito-temporal cortex, which most likely reflects the larger number of delay cells in anterior compared with posterior regions (Fuster, 1990
; Mikami, 1995
). High trial rates preferentially drove more posterior parts of the occipito-temporal cortex, in agreement with single cell studies showing that more posterior cells in IT react better to simple stimuli than anterior cells (Miyashita and Chang, 1988
; Tanaka et al., 1991
). Animal experiments are unhelpful in interpreting the suppression of neuronal activity in the anterior parts of the occipito-temporal cortex at fast trial rates, since only slow trial rates have been tested. However, inhibition of neuronal activity has been demonstrated in the lateral temporal cortex of patients undergoing awake craniotomy while engaged in visuo-spatial short-term memory tasks (Holmes et al., 1996
). Finally, it is worth noting that the rate gradient in the right occipito-temporal cortex fits the recent report of Elliott and Dolan on delayed matching tasks performed at two delay intervals (Elliott and Dolan, 1999
). In that study, in which rate co-varied with delay interval, the right middle fusiform cortex ([32, 58, 18]) was more active for a 5 s than a 15 s delay, while the right middle temporal cortex ([58, 22, 12]) showed the opposite behavior.
|
It is important to note that the functional gradient for the TSD task in occipito-temporal cortex closely parallels an anatomical dissociation within IT of macaque monkeys. Webster and co-workers reported that the posterior IT is scarcely connected with frontal areas, but strongly projects to parietal visual areas and to V3A (Webster et al., 1994). Similarly, ultra-short-term memory at a fast rate involved an occipito-temporal-parietal network (Table 4
). Conversely, the anterior IT is predominantly connected with dorsal and ventral prefrontal areas, matching the occipito-temporal-frontal activity pattern observed at the slow trial rate (Table 4
).
Orientation Working Memory: Comparison with Previous N-Back Studies
So far, several functional imaging studies have made use of the N-back paradigm to investigate the neural correlate of verbal working memory (Awh et al., 1995; Schumacher et al., 1996
; Braver et al., 1997
; Cohen et al., 1997
; Jonides et al., 1997
; D'Esposito et al., 1998a
) and visuo-spatial working memory (Awh et al., 1995
; Carlson et al., 1998
; D'Esposito et al., 1998a
; Owen et al., 1999
). The present study is clearly unique, since no verbal or semantic strategies could be adopted due to the use of an elementary attribute, orientation. In addition, gratings were presented in the central position and steady fixation was required. Yet, our results are in excellent agreement with these previous N-back studies with respect to the three main regions involved. First, activation of both BA 9/46 (DLPFC) and 46 has consistently been observed in all verbal and spatial N-back studies. Second, SFS (BA 6/8Ad) activation has been observed in all spatial studies and in three (Awh et al., 1995
; Braver et al., 1997
; Cohen et al., 1997
) of the six verbal N-back studies. Third, all verbal N-back studies consistently reported differential activation in left BA 40. The involvement of area BA 40 is less consistently seen in the spatial N-back studies (Awh et al., 1995
; Carlson et al., 1998
). Thus, the functional architecture of orientation working memory is similar to that of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory. Interestingly, a recent N-back study using numbers as stimuli (Callicott et al., 1999
) also reported activation of DLPFC, SFS and the inferior parietal cortex. The fronto-parietal involvement in orientation working memory fits with the known anatomical connections, since the inferior parietal lobe strongly projects to BA 46/9, 46, 6 and 8Ad in the monkey (Petrides and Pandya, 1999
). It also fits the co-activation of prefrontal cortex (PFC) and inferior parietal cortex in working memory tasks as revealed by 2DG functional mapping in the monkey (Friedman and Goldman-Rakic, 1994
).
Separate Cortical Stores for Orientation Working Memory and Ultra-short-term Memory
The current study provides evidence for a functional dissociation between orientation working memory, underlain by a fronto- parietal network, and ultra-short-term memory, underlain by the occipito-temporal cortex. Hence, our results do not support the hypothesis that orientation short-term memory/working memory tasks involve the same anatomical region(s) for the mnemonic storage component. Although several brain regions yielded by the subtractions [TSD ID] and [2back 0back] may underlie non-mnemonic cognitive task components, the observed functional dissociation implies that storage during orientation ultra-short-term memory and working memory involves different neuronal populations. Functional imaging, however, cannot distinguish between two alternatives: either a neuronal population may be more active in one type of memory than in the other or a population may be active in one type of memory and not active at all in the other.
This dissociation closely parallels the neural mechanisms of visual short-term memory/working memory as demonstrated in the monkey. When using a delayed match to a sample (DMS) task with multiple intervening non-match stimuli, delay activity in the PFC was unaffected by these intervening stimuli, in contrast to IT neuronal activity (Miller et al., 1994, 1996
). This indicates that delay activity in the PFC represents the sample stimulus, while in IT cortex it represents the last stimulus shown. Hence, it is not surprising that orientation ultra-short-term memory, which only represents the last stimulus shown, exclusively relies on occipito-temporal cortex activity. That the PFC is not engaged in ultra-short-term memory might reflect a task dependency of prefrontal activity, not unlike that documented for the auditory (Colombo et al., 1990
) and visual (Orban et al., 1997
) systems. Earlier studies have indeed indicated that during psychophysical tasks, such as simple discriminations, the PFC is deactivated (Orban et al., 1997
). However, one may raise the question whether the small percentage of total time taken by the memory processes in the successive discrimination tasks could account for the absence of PFC activation. This is unlikely for two reasons. First, the dissociation was still present for fast successive discrimination in which storage takes at least 18% of the total time, rather than 5% at the slow rate. Second, if percentage of total time was the explanation, it would be impossible to see activation in the temporal cortex since both single unit (Miller et al., 1994
) and functional imaging data (Courtney et al., 1997
) indicate that delay activity in the occipito-temporal cortex is, if anything, smaller than that in the PFC.
Overall, our results indicate, in agreement with primate single cell studies, that if delay activity represents the neuronal correlate of storage in short-term memory/working memory tasks, delay activity in different brain regions reflects storage in ultra-short-term memory and working memory.
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Notes |
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Address correspondence to Prof. Dr G.A. Orban, Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Campus Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. Email: guy.orban{at}med.kuleuven.ac.be.
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