Nee Derek Evan, D'Esposito Mark
Department of Psychology, Florida State University, 1107 W Call St, Tallahassee, FL, 32306-4301, USA.
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, University of California, 132 Barker Hall, Berkeley, CA, 94720-3190, USA.
Curr Top Behav Neurosci. 2018;37:213-230. doi: 10.1007/7854_2016_456.
Working memory refers to a system involved in the online maintenance and manipulation of information in the absence of external input. Due to the importance of working memory in higher-level cognition, a wealth of neuroscience studies has investigated its neural basis. These studies have often led to conflicting viewpoints regarding the importance of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and posterior sensory cortices. Here, we review evidence for each position. We suggest that the relative contributions of the PFC and sensory cortices to working memory can be understood with respect to processing demands. We argue that procedures that minimize processing demands lead to increased importance of sensory representations, while procedures that permit transformational processing lead to representational abstraction that relies on the PFC. We suggest that abstract PFC representations support top-down control over posterior representations while also providing bottom-up inputs into higher-level cognitive processing. Although a number of contemporary studies have studied working memory while using procedures that minimize the role of the PFC, we argue that consideration of the PFC is critical for our understanding of working memory and higher-level cognition more generally.
工作记忆是指在没有外部输入的情况下，参与信息在线维持和操作的系统。由于工作记忆在高级认知中具有重要性，大量神经科学研究对其神经基础进行了探究。这些研究常常就前额叶皮层（PFC）和后部感觉皮层的重要性得出相互矛盾的观点。在此，我们综述支持每种观点的证据。我们认为，PFC和感觉皮层对工作记忆的相对贡献可以从加工需求的角度来理解。我们认为，将加工需求降至最低的程序会导致感觉表征的重要性增加，而允许进行变换加工的程序会导致依赖PFC的表征抽象。我们认为，抽象的PFC表征支持对后部表征的自上而下控制，同时也为更高层次的认知加工提供自下而上的输入。尽管许多当代研究在使用将PFC的作用降至最低的程序时对工作记忆进行了研究，但我们认为，考虑PFC对于我们更全面地理解工作记忆和高级认知至关重要。
