Working memory, defined as the information processes dedicated to holding and actively manipulating information on-line, serves as a """"""""mental scratchpad"""""""" that is integral to complex cognition. The focus of this proposal is on the underlying phonological and articulatory representations and processes that support the maintenance of verbal information. Our prior work and recent behavioral findings by other investigators have generated results that are difficult to reconcile with a highly influential model of verbal working memory proposed by Baddeley and colleagues. In this competitive renewal, we will test an alternative neurally-based account through convergent behavioral, neuroimaging, and neuropsychological studies.
Aim 1 will evaluate the maintenance of information via rehearsal-based and attention-based strategies supported, respectively, by speech motor areas and the inferior parietal cortex.
Aim 2 will examine a novel hypothesis about the interplay between articulation and activated phonological representations supported by temporoparietal cortex.
Aim 3 will seek to delineate the specific contributions of three different regions - the left frontal operculum, premotor cortex, and the cerebellum - to subvocal rehearsal. This work is a unique use of neuroimaging to inform cognitive theoretical models. It has the potential to impact our broader understandings of attention, the representation of serial order, and the joint influence of phonological processing on language and working memory. ? ?

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH059256-08
Application #
7334775
Study Section
Language and Communication Study Section (LCOM)
Program Officer
Osborn, Bettina D
Project Start
2000-07-01
Project End
2010-12-31
Budget Start
2008-01-01
Budget End
2008-12-31
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2008
Total Cost
$336,965
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pittsburgh
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
004514360
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213
Guediche, Sara; Fiez, Julie A; Holt, Lori L (2016) Adaptive plasticity in speech perception: Effects of external information and internal predictions. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 42:1048-59
Durisko, Corrine; Fiez, Julie A (2010) Functional activation in the cerebellum during working memory and simple speech tasks. Cortex 46:896-906
Chein, Jason M; Fiez, Julie A (2010) Evaluating models of working memory through the effects of concurrent irrelevant information. J Exp Psychol Gen 139:117-37
Moore, Michelle W; Tompkins, Connie A; Dollaghan, Christine A (2010) Manipulating articulatory demands in non-word repetition: a 'late-8' non-word repetition task. Clin Linguist Phon 24:997-1008
Strick, Peter L; Dum, Richard P; Fiez, Julie A (2009) Cerebellum and nonmotor function. Annu Rev Neurosci 32:413-34
Ben-Yehudah, Gal; Fiez, Julie A (2008) Impact of cerebellar lesions on reading and phonological processing. Ann N Y Acad Sci 1145:260-74
Fiez, Julie A; Tranel, Daniel; Seager-Frerichs, Daunye et al. (2006) Specific reading and phonological processing deficits are associated with damage to the left frontal operculum. Cortex 42:624-43
Ravizza, Susan M; Behrmann, Marlene; Fiez, Julie A (2005) Right parietal contributions to verbal working memory: spatial or executive? Neuropsychologia 43:2057-67
Ravizza, Susan M; Delgado, Mauricio R; Chein, Jason M et al. (2004) Functional dissociations within the inferior parietal cortex in verbal working memory. Neuroimage 22:562-73
MacAndrew, Danean K; Klatzky, Roberta L; Fiez, Julie A et al. (2002) The phonological-similarity effect differentiates between two working memory tasks. Psychol Sci 13:465-8

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