Working Memory: Maintenance, Updating, and the Realization of Intentions

Overview

Journal Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol

Specialties Biology
Molecular Biology

Date 2015 Dec 6

PMID 26637287

Citations 29

Authors

Lars Nyberg

Johan Eriksson

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

"Working memory" refers to a vast set of mnemonic processes and associated brain networks, relates to basic intellectual abilities, and underlies many real-world functions. Working-memory maintenance involves frontoparietal regions and distributed representational areas, and can be based on persistent activity in reentrant loops, synchronous oscillations, or changes in synaptic strength. Manipulation of content of working memory depends on the dorsofrontal cortex, and updating is realized by a frontostriatal '"gating" function. Goals and intentions are represented as cognitive and motivational contexts in the rostrofrontal cortex. Different working-memory networks are linked via associative reinforcement-learning mechanisms into a self-organizing system. Normal capacity variation, as well as working-memory deficits, can largely be accounted for by the effectiveness and integrity of the basal ganglia and dopaminergic neurotransmission.

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