Collette F, Salmon E, Van der Linden M, Chicherio C, Belleville S, Degueldre C, Delfiore G, Franck G
Neuropsychology Unit, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium.
Brain Res Cogn Brain Res. 1999 Jan;7(3):411-7. doi: 10.1016/s0926-6410(98)00045-7.
Most previous PET studies investigating the central executive (CE) component of working memory found activation in the prefrontal cortex. However, the tasks used did not always permit to distinguish precisely the functions of the CE from the storage function of the slave systems. The aim of the present study was to isolate brain areas that subserve manipulation of information by the CE when the influence of storage function was removed. A PET activation study was performed with four cognitive tasks, crossing conditions of temporary storage and manipulation of information. The manipulation of information induced an activation in the right (BA 10/46) and left (BA 9/6) middle frontal gyrus and in the left parietal area (BA7). The interaction between the storage and manipulation conditions did not reveal any significant changes in activation. These results are in agreement with the hypothesis that CE functions are distributed between anterior and posterior brain areas, but could also reflect a simultaneous involvement of controlled (frontal) and automatic (parietal) attentional systems. In the other hand, the absence of interaction between the storage and manipulation conditions demonstrates that the CE is not necessarily related to the presence of a memory load.
以往大多数研究工作记忆中央执行（CE）成分的正电子发射断层扫描（PET）研究发现前额叶皮质有激活。然而，所使用的任务并不总是能够精确区分中央执行的功能与从属系统的存储功能。本研究的目的是在消除存储功能影响的情况下，分离出支持中央执行对信息进行操作的脑区。进行了一项PET激活研究，采用了四项认知任务，涵盖信息的临时存储和操作条件。信息操作在右侧（BA 10/46）和左侧（BA 9/6）额中回以及左侧顶叶区域（BA7）诱发了激活。存储和操作条件之间的交互作用未显示激活有任何显著变化。这些结果与中央执行功能分布在前脑和后脑区域的假设一致，但也可能反映了受控（额叶）和自动（顶叶）注意力系统的同时参与。另一方面，存储和操作条件之间缺乏交互作用表明中央执行不一定与记忆负荷的存在有关。
