Visual and spatial working memory: From boxes to networks

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.05.016

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Volume 32, Issue 8, October 2008, Pages 1373-1395

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2008.05.016 Get rights and content

Abstract

It is shown that visuo-spatial working memory is better characterized as processes operating on sensory information (visual appearance) and on spatial location (environmental coordinates) in a distributed network than as unitary slave system. Results from passive (short-term) and active memory tasks (imagery) disclose the properties (capacity, content) and the components of this network. The prefrontal cortex is a control structure (dorsal prefers active, ventral passive tasks) and it contributes to spatial memory by a prospective spatial code (eye movements). Visual appearance (including dynamic aspects) is represented as features and object files (bound features) within content-specific areas in the ventral occipital cortex. Spatial coordinates are represented in the parietal cortex (modality-unspecific), when used in spatio-temporal tasks (Corsi) they are closely related to attention. Imagery of objects activates occipito-temporal structures, spatial transformations and mental rotation the parietal cortex (specifically the intraparietal sulcus). Perception, working memory, and imagery use the same neural network. Differences between the tasks are explained by different demands and states of the neural network, and differences in the configuration of the anterior–posterior neural circuits.

Section snippets

What is stored within the visuo-spatial sketchpad

The visuo-spatial sketchpad was introduced as an additional short-term store besides the phonological loop. The main argument in favor of another subsystem was the observation that secondary tasks within the same domain (verbal or visual) interfere with each other, whereas two tasks from different domains do not (Baddeley et al., 1999) (see Repovš and Baddeley (2006), for a recent review). However, though it was beyond dispute that verbal and visual working memories should be separated (but

Neural structures involved in VSWM

I have argued in favor of the assumption that VSWM is not a monolithic component but it consists of different part processes operating on different representations. The visual component of VSWM represents the object's visual appearance at different levels – from isolated features to integrated objects – within domain-specific structures and spatial configurations. Independent of that, at a supra-modal level, the spatial component represents spatial positions that are also used for directing

Imagery and VSWM

Until now we have mainly reported studies in which VSWM was investigated as means of short-term remembering. This is one function of VSWM and as Hollingworth et al. (2008) has shown it is also an important function of VSWM in everyday context. However, this is a rather passive task and because we are speaking of working and not only of short-term memory, we should also have a look at more active tasks. According to my understanding, VSWM is also involved in active visual processing.

Concluding remarks

Fig. 4 summarizes the results of the imagery studies and it maps these data onto the structures we had previously discussed as constituents of the WM network. As one can see, similar structures were found active in imagery and visuo-spatial reasoning tasks as I previously discussed in the context of in perception, and this network is also active in perception (see Farah, 1989). The dorsal-ventral distinction was relevant also in imagery tasks and prefrontal activities were observed varying with

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a grant of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft within the Collaborative Research Centre for Resource-Adaptive Cognitive Processes (SFB 378). I would like to thank the editors, two anonymous reviewers, Gerry Quinn and Katja Umla-Runge for helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.

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ReviewVisual and spatial working memory: From boxes to networks

Abstract

Section snippets

What is stored within the visuo-spatial sketchpad

Neural structures involved in VSWM

Imagery and VSWM

Concluding remarks

Acknowledgments

Neuroimage

Trends Cogn. Neurosci.

Trends Cogn. Neurosci.

Trends Cogn. Neurosci.

Brain Cogn.

Brain Cogn.

Neuron

Cogn. Brain Res.

Neuroimage

Trends Cogn. Neurosci.

Neuroscience

Trends Cogn. Neurosci.

Neuroimage

Cogn. Brain Res.

Neuropsychologia

Brain Cogn.

Trends Cogn. Neurosci.

Cogn. Brain Res.

Neuropsychologia

Neuron

Brain Res.

J. Verb. Learn. Verb. Behav.

Neuroimage

Trends Cogn. Neurosci.

Brain Cogn.

Neuron

Trends Neurosci.

Neuropsychologia

Neuron

Cognition

Neuropsychologia

Curr. Biol.

Trends Neurosci.

Curr. Opin. Neurobiol.

Is the binding of visual features in working memory resource-demanding?

J. Exp. Psychol. Gen.

The capacity of visual short term memory is set both by visual information load and by number of objects

Psychol. Sci.

Selective involvement of the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the coding of the serial order of visual stimuli in working memory

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Multimodal representation of space in the posterior parietal cortex and its use in planning movements

Annu. Rev. Neurosci.

Insensitivity of visual short-term memory to irrelevant visual information

Q. J. Exp. Psychol. A

The functional organization of auditory working memory as revealed by fMRI

J. Cogn. Neurosci.

Functional organization of human intraparietal and frontal cortex for attending, looking, and pointing

J. Neurosci.

Dynamic visual noise: no interference with visual short-term memory or the construction of visual images

Eur. J. Cogn. Psychol.

The role of spatial selective attention in working memory for locations: evidence from event-related potentials

J. Cogn. Neurosci.

Visual working memory represents a fixed number of items regardless of complexity

Psychol. Sci.

Rehearsal in spatial working memory

J. Exp. Psychol.: Hum. Percept. Perform.

The Psychology of Memory

Working Memory

Working memory: looking back and looking forward

Nat. Rev. Neurosci.

Working memory

Spatial working memory

Review
Visual and spatial working memory: From boxes to networks