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Partial dissociation in the neural bases of VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex

Visual short-term memory (VSTM) and visual imagery are believed to involve overlapping neuronal representations in the early visual cortex. While a number of studies have provided evidence for this overlap, at the behavioral level VSTM and imagery are dissociable processes; this begs the question of...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Saad, Elyana, Wojciechowska, Maria, Silvanto, Juha
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Pergamon Press 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4542523/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26026256
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.05.026
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author Saad, Elyana
Wojciechowska, Maria
Silvanto, Juha
author_facet Saad, Elyana
Wojciechowska, Maria
Silvanto, Juha
author_sort Saad, Elyana
collection PubMed
description Visual short-term memory (VSTM) and visual imagery are believed to involve overlapping neuronal representations in the early visual cortex. While a number of studies have provided evidence for this overlap, at the behavioral level VSTM and imagery are dissociable processes; this begs the question of how their neuronal mechanisms differ. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine whether the neural bases of imagery and VSTM maintenance are dissociable in the early visual cortex (EVC). We intentionally used a similar task for VSTM and imagery in order to equate their assessment. We hypothesized that any differential effect of TMS on VSTM and imagery would indicate that their neuronal bases differ at the level of EVC. In the “alone” condition, participants were asked to engage either in VSTM or imagery, whereas in the “concurrent” condition, each trial required both VSTM maintenance and imagery simultaneously. A dissociation between VSTM and imagery was observed for reaction times: TMS slowed down responses for VSTM but not for imagery. The impact of TMS on sensitivity did not differ between VSTM and imagery, but did depend on whether the tasks were carried concurrently or alone. This study shows that neural processes associated with VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex can be partially dissociated.
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spelling pubmed-45425232015-08-28 Partial dissociation in the neural bases of VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex Saad, Elyana Wojciechowska, Maria Silvanto, Juha Neuropsychologia Article Visual short-term memory (VSTM) and visual imagery are believed to involve overlapping neuronal representations in the early visual cortex. While a number of studies have provided evidence for this overlap, at the behavioral level VSTM and imagery are dissociable processes; this begs the question of how their neuronal mechanisms differ. Here we used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to examine whether the neural bases of imagery and VSTM maintenance are dissociable in the early visual cortex (EVC). We intentionally used a similar task for VSTM and imagery in order to equate their assessment. We hypothesized that any differential effect of TMS on VSTM and imagery would indicate that their neuronal bases differ at the level of EVC. In the “alone” condition, participants were asked to engage either in VSTM or imagery, whereas in the “concurrent” condition, each trial required both VSTM maintenance and imagery simultaneously. A dissociation between VSTM and imagery was observed for reaction times: TMS slowed down responses for VSTM but not for imagery. The impact of TMS on sensitivity did not differ between VSTM and imagery, but did depend on whether the tasks were carried concurrently or alone. This study shows that neural processes associated with VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex can be partially dissociated. Pergamon Press 2015-08 /pmc/articles/PMC4542523/ /pubmed/26026256 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.05.026 Text en © 2015 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Saad, Elyana
Wojciechowska, Maria
Silvanto, Juha
Partial dissociation in the neural bases of VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex
title Partial dissociation in the neural bases of VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex
title_full Partial dissociation in the neural bases of VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex
title_fullStr Partial dissociation in the neural bases of VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex
title_full_unstemmed Partial dissociation in the neural bases of VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex
title_short Partial dissociation in the neural bases of VSTM and imagery in the early visual cortex
title_sort partial dissociation in the neural bases of vstm and imagery in the early visual cortex
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4542523/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26026256
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.05.026
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