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Science 28 January 2000:
Vol. 287. no. 5453, pp. 643 - 646
DOI: 10.1126/science.287.5453.643
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Reports

Complementary Neural Mechanisms for Tracking Items in Human Working Memory

Yang Jiang, 12* James V. Haxby, 1 Alex Martin, 1 Leslie G. Ungerleider, 1 Raja Parasuraman 2

Recognition of a specific visual target among equally familiar distracters requires neural mechanisms for tracking items in working memory. Event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging revealed evidence for two such mechanisms: (i) Enhanced neural responses, primarily in the frontal cortex, were associated with the target and were maintained across repetitions of the target. (ii) Reduced responses, primarily in the extrastriate visual cortex, were associated with stimulus repetition, regardless of whether the stimulus was a target or a distracter. These complementary neural mechanisms track the status of familiar items in working memory, allowing for the efficient recognition of a currently relevant object and rejection of irrelevant distracters.

1 Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-1366, USA.
2 Cognitive Science Laboratory, The Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 20064, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: yjiang{at}codon.nih.gov

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