University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3G3, Canada.
J Cogn Neurosci. 2011 Oct;23(10):2968-82. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_00028. Epub 2011 Mar 31.
Visual working memory (VWM) is a capacity-limited cognitive resource that plays an important role in complex cognitive behaviors. Recent studies indicate that regions subserving VWM may play a role in the perception and recognition of visual objects, suggesting that conscious object perception may depend on the same cognitive and neural architecture that supports the maintenance of visual object information. In the present study, we examined this question by testing object processing under a concurrent VWM load. Under a high VWM load, recognition was impaired for objects presented in the left visual field, in particular when two objects were presented simultaneously. Multivariate fMRI revealed that two independent but partially overlapping networks of brain regions contribute to object recognition. The first network consisted of regions involved in VWM encoding and maintenance. Importantly, these regions were also sensitive to object load. The second network comprised regions of the ventral temporal lobes traditionally associated with object recognition. Importantly, activation in both networks predicted object recognition performance. These results indicate that information processing in regions that mediate VWM may be critical to conscious visual perception. Moreover, the observation of a hemifield asymmetry in object recognition performance has important theoretical and clinical significance for the study of visual neglect.
视觉工作记忆 (VWM) 是一种容量有限的认知资源，在复杂认知行为中起着重要作用。最近的研究表明，负责 VWM 的区域可能在视觉对象的感知和识别中发挥作用，这表明有意识的物体感知可能依赖于支持视觉物体信息保持的相同认知和神经结构。在本研究中，我们通过测试同时进行的 VWM 负载下的物体处理来检验这个问题。在高 VWM 负载下，左视野中呈现的物体的识别受到损害，尤其是当同时呈现两个物体时。多变量 fMRI 显示，两个独立但部分重叠的脑区网络有助于物体识别。第一个网络由参与 VWM 编码和维持的区域组成。重要的是，这些区域也对物体负载敏感。第二个网络由与物体识别传统相关的腹侧颞叶区域组成。重要的是，两个网络的激活都可以预测物体识别性能。这些结果表明，介导 VWM 的区域中的信息处理对于有意识的视觉感知至关重要。此外，在物体识别性能中观察到的半视野不对称具有重要的理论和临床意义，可用于研究视觉忽视。
