Neural mechanisms of expert skills in visual working memory

108Citations
Citations of this article
211Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

Expertise can increase working memory (WM) performance, but the cognitive and neural mechanisms of these improvements remain unclear. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to assess the degree to which expertise acquisition is supported by tuning of occipitotemporal object representations and tuning of prefrontal and parietal networks that may support domain-specific WM skills. We trained subjects to become experts in a novel category of complex visual objects and examined brain activity while they performed a WM task with objects from the expert category and from an untrained category. Visual expertise training resulted in improved recognition of expert, compared with untrained objects, and this effect was eliminated in a behavioral experiment by stimulus inversion. These behavioral changes were accompanied by increased recruitment of bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal, posterior parietal, and occipitotemporal cortices during WM encoding and maintenance. Across subjects, behavioral measures of expertise reliably predicted increased activation during maintenance of expert objects in all three regions. These neural expertise effects could not be attributed to differences in low-level stimulus characteristics between the two categories, familiarity with features of expert-domain objects, or familiarity with the WM task. These results are consistent with the idea that visual expertise improves WM performance through tuning of occipitotemporal object representations and through development of lateral prefrontal and posterior parietal networks that mediate the application of domain-specific mnemonic skills. Copyright © 2006 Society for Neuroscience.

References Powered by Scopus

The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity for processing information

15131Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

The fusiform face area: A module in human extrastriate cortex specialized for face perception

6216Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity

4873Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

The fusiform face area: A cortical region specialized for the perception of faces

1250Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Training and plasticity of working memory

1158Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Neural correlates of attentional expertise in long-term meditation practitioners

714Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Moore, C. D., Cohen, M. X., & Ranganath, C. (2006). Neural mechanisms of expert skills in visual working memory. Journal of Neuroscience, 26(43), 11187–11196. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1873-06.2006

Readers over time

‘09‘10‘11‘12‘13‘14‘15‘16‘17‘18‘19‘20‘21‘22‘23‘2408162432

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 89

53%

Researcher 48

28%

Professor / Associate Prof. 27

16%

Lecturer / Post doc 5

3%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Psychology 111

74%

Neuroscience 20

13%

Medicine and Dentistry 11

7%

Agricultural and Biological Sciences 9

6%

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free
0