Access
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
Letters to Nature
Nature 428, 751-754 (15 April 2004) | doi:10.1038/nature02466; Received 11 January 2004; Accepted 9 March 2004
Open Innovation Challenges
-
Protect Enzyme from In Planta Degradation
A proposal for stable expression of an enzyme in corn seed is desired.
-
Efficient Chromosome Doubling: Plant Cell Division
The Seeker is looking for an efficient chromosome doubling method in plants and in particular, metho...
- More Challenges
- Powered by:
nature jobs
Postdoctoral Position in Cystic Fibrosis / Pulmonary Research
- Universitatsklinikum Heidelberg
- Heidelberg 69120 Germany
Principal / Senior Scientist- Neurosciences
- Genentech
- South San Francisco, CA, USA
Capacity limit of visual short-term memory in human posterior parietal cortex
- Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Department of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, 530 Wilson Hall, Nashville, Tennessee 37203, USA
Correspondence to: René Marois1 Email: rene.marois@vanderbilt.edu
Abstract
At any instant, our visual system allows us to perceive a rich and detailed visual world. Yet our internal, explicit representation of this visual world is extremely sparse: we can only hold in mind a minute fraction of the visual scene1, 2. These mental representations are stored in visual short-term memory (VSTM). Even though VSTM is essential for the execution of a wide array of perceptual and cognitive functions3, 4, 5, and is supported by an extensive network of brain regions6, 7, 8, 9, its storage capacity is severely limited10, 11, 12, 13. With the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, we show here that this capacity limit is neurally reflected in one node of this network: activity in the posterior parietal cortex is tightly correlated with the limited amount of scene information that can be stored in VSTM. These results suggest that the posterior parietal cortex is a key neural locus of our impoverished mental representation of the visual world.
To read this story in full you will need to login or make a payment (see right).
MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS
These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.
RESEARCH
Neural fate of ignored stimuli: dissociable effects of perceptual and working memory loadNature Neuroscience Article (01 Sep 2004)
Dissociable neural mechanisms supporting visual short-term memory for objectsNature Letters to Editor (02 Mar 2006)
Prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia control access to working memoryNature Neuroscience Article (01 Jan 2008)
See all 29 matches for Research