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Chapter: Essentials of Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuropsychology

Working Memory

Working Memory
We have previously discussed in general terms the frontal con-tribution to memory at the level of encoding and retrieving.

Working Memory

 

We have previously discussed in general terms the frontal con-tribution to memory at the level of encoding and retrieving. However, memory researchers believe that the frontal lobes modulate the use of memory in executive functions such as planning and decision-making. This kind of memory is referred to as “working memory” (Miller et al., 1960). In their recent comprehensive review of working memory models, Miyake and Shah (1999) proposed that working memory “is those mecha-nisms or processes that are involved in the service of complex cognition, including novel as well as familiar, skilled tasks”. This definition differentiates working memory from short-term memory because it suggests that working memory goes beyond simply keeping information “in mind”; rather, working memory brings or keeps information online in a goal-directed fashion. Baddeley and Hitch (1974) were the first to provide a human cognitive model for the concept of working memory, and the neuroanatomical localization of this to the frontal lobes has been largely advanced by the extensive work of Goldman-Rakic and colleagues (Goldman-Rakic, 1987, 1988; Baddeley and Hitch, 1974).

 

Figure 15.8 illustrates the major components of the Badde-ley and Hitch model of working memory. This model (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974) provides for a dynamic system of temporary and limited storage. It is composed of a central executive and two “slave” systems, a visual–spatial sketchpad, and a phonological loop.

 

The central executive aspect of the working memory sys-tem appears to exert control over the flow of activity between the slave systems and provides the input to long-term memory. However, this is also the least well-understood component of working memory. The interaction of slave systems with the central executive probably reflects the interplay between the frontal lobe mechanisms of executive control of input received from parietal, temporal and occipital systems of perception and association. Although the detailed role of the central executive remains unclear, evidence from the animal and human experi-mental literature suggests that the prefrontal cortex is specialized with respect to working memory.

 


 

Anatomical Evidence of Working Memory

 

The prefrontal cortex may be a kind of multipurpose working memory center, with each area concerned with a different domain. The prefrontal cortex would then function as the coordinating el-ement in a parallel distributed cortical–cortical network

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