Open AccessDemand on verbal working memory delays haemodynamic response in the inferior prefrontal cortex
Author(s) -
Thierry Guillaume,
Ibarrola Danielle,
Démonet JeanFrançois,
Cardebat Dominique
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
human brain mapping
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.005
H-Index - 191
eISSN - 1097-0193
pISSN - 1065-9471
DOI - 10.1002/hbm.10101
Subject(s) - working memory , psychology , functional magnetic resonance imaging , prefrontal cortex , categorization , cognitive psychology , inferior frontal gyrus , semantic memory , cognition , noun , neuroscience , computer science , artificial intelligence
Event‐related functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to test the involvement of the inferior prefrontal cortex in verbal working memory. Pairs of French nouns were presented to ten native French speakers who had to make semantic or grammatical gender decisions. Verbal working memory involvement was manipulated by making the categorization of the second noun optional. Decisions could be made after processing the first noun only (RELEASE condition) or after processing the two nouns (HOLD condition). Reaction times suggested faster processing for gender than for semantic category in RELEASE. Despite the absence of anatomical difference across tasks and conditions in the wide activated network, the haemodynamic response peak latencies of the inferior prefrontal cortex were significantly delayed in HOLD versus RELEASE while no such peak delay was observed in the superior temporal gyrus. Interestingly, this pattern did not interact with language tasks. This study shows that cognitive manipulation can influence haemodynamic time‐course and suggests that the main cognitive process determining inferior prefrontal activation is verbal working memory rather than specific linguistic processes such as grammatical or semantic analysis. Hum. Brain Mapping 19:37–46, 2003. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.