Where is working memory located

QBI newsletters Subscribe. Help QBI research Give now. Download the pdf. Download printable poster. Skip to menu Skip to content Skip to footer. Site search Search.

Site search Search Menu. Where are memories stored in the brain? The parts of the brain involved in memory Illustration by Levent Efe. Memory Types of memory How memories are formed Where are memories stored? What makes memories stronger?

Memory and age Why you can't remember being a baby Factors affecting learning Learning: why good teachers matter Does brain training work?

Myth: different learning styles Science-based learning tips Do smart drugs work? Learning disorders Speaking multiple languages Good study habits that maximise learning. Download the pdf Download printable poster. Emergency Phone: Google Scholar. Bailey, N. Increased gamma connectivity during working memory retention following traumatic brain injury. Balderston, N. Anxiety patients show reduced working memory related dlPFC activation during safety and threat.

Anxiety 34, 25— Barrouillet, P. Osaka Oxford: Oxford University Press , 59— Working memory span development: a time-based resource-sharing model account. Bolkan, S. Thalamic projections sustain prefrontal activity during working memory maintenance. Borella, E. Training working memory in older adults: is there an advantage of using strategies?

Aging 32, — Chein, J. NeuroImage domain-general mechanisms of complex working memory span. Neuroimage 54, — Chen, C. Working memory in patients with mild traumatic brain injury: functional MR imaging analysis. Radiology , — Cowan, N.

Miyake and P. Shah Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Working memory capacity. What are the differences between long-term, short-term, and working memory? Brain Res.

The magical mystery four. Dahlin, E. Plasticity of executive functioning in young and older adults: immediate training gains, transfer, and long-term maintenance. Aging 23, — Daneman, M. Individual differences in working memory and reading. Verbal Learn. Verbal Behav. The cognitive neuroscience of working memory. Dikmen, S. Cognitive outcome following traumatic brain injury.

Head Trauma Rehabil. Dima, D. Dynamic causal modeling of load-dependent modulation of effective connectivity within the verbal working memory network.

Brain Mapp. Dobryakova, E. Investigation of information flow during a novel working memory task in individuals with traumatic brain injury.

Brain Connect. Duff, S. A beneficial effect of estrogen on working memory in postmenopausal women taking hormone replacement therapy. Dunning, D. A meta-analysis of working memory impairments in survivors of moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury.

Neuropsychology 30, — Ellis, M. The UCLA study of children with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury: event-related potential measure of interhemispheric transfer time. Neurotrauma 33, — Engle, R. Working memory capacity as executive attention.

Farrer, T. Encyclopedia of Geropsychology , ed. Singapore: Springer. CrossRef Full Text. Fiebig, F. A spiking working memory model based on hebbian short-term potentiation.

Friston, K. Analysing connectivity with granger causality and dynamic causal modelling. Gorman, S. Does processing speed mediate the effect of pediatric traumatic brain injury on working memory? The effects of pediatric traumatic brain injury on verbal and visual-spatial working memory. Gottwald, B. Evidence for distinct cognitive deficits after focal cerebellar lesions.

Psychiatry 75, — Grot, S. Abnormal prefrontal and parietal activity linked to deficient active binding in working memory in schizophrenia. Guye, S. Working memory training in older adults: bayesian evidence supporting the absence of transfer.

Haller, S. Caffeine impact on working memory-related network activation patterns in early stages of cognitive decline. Neuroradiology 59, — Acute caffeine administration impact on working memory-related brain activation and functional connectivity in the elderly: a BOLD and perfusion MRI study.

Hedden, T. Insights into the ageing mind: a view from cognitive neuroscience. Heinzel, S. Transfer effects to a multimodal dual-task after working memory training and associated neural correlates in older adults — a pilot study.

Hillary, F. Examining working memory task acquisition in a disrupted neural network. Brain , — Hsu, H. Sex differences in working memory after mild traumatic brain injury: a functional MR imaging study. Humphreys, M. Different ways to cue a coherent memory system: a theory for episodic, semantic, and procedural tasks.

Janowsky, J. Sex steroids modify working memory. Jimura, K. Intertemporal decision-making involves prefrontal control mechanisms associated with working memory. Cortex doi: Joseph, J. Influence of estradiol on functional brain organization for working memory. Neuroimage 59, — Karbach, J. Making working memory work: a meta-analysis of executive control and working memory training in younger and older adults. Kim, C. The role of the frontopolar cortex in manipulation of integrated information in working memory.

Klaassen, E. The effect of caffeine on working memory load-related brain activation in middle-aged males. Neuropharmacology 64, — Kovacs, K.

Process overlap theory: a unified account of the general factor of intelligence. Le, T. Alterations in visual cortical activation and connectivity with prefrontal cortex during working memory updating in major depressive disorder. Neuroimage 14, 43— Liu, Z. EEG alpha power during maintenance of information in working memory in adults with ADHD and its plasticity due to working memory training: a randomized controlled trial.

Ma, L. Working memory load modulation of parieto-frontal connections: evidence from dynamic causal modeling. Maehler, C. Mandalis, A. Working memory and new learning following pediatric traumatic brain injury.

Manktelow, A. Working memory after traumatic brain injury: the neural basis of improved performance with methylphenidate. Miller, G. Plans and the Structure of Behavior. Miyake, A. Mongillo, G. Synaptic theory of working memory. Science , — Moore, A. Bilateral basal ganglia activity in verbal working memory. Brain Lang. Murty, V. Selective updating of working memory content modulates meso-cortico-striatal activity. Neuroimage 57, — Nadebaum, C.

Executive function outcomes following traumatic brain injury in young children: a five year follow-up. Nadler, R. The assessment of verbal and visuospatial working memory with school age canadian children. Speech Lang. Nakagawa, S. Sex-related differences in the effects of sleep habits on verbal and visuospatial working memory. Nissim, N. Frontal structural neural correlates of working memory performance in older adults. Aging Neurosci.

Oren, N. Neural patterns underlying the effect of negative distractors on working memory in older adults. Aging 53, 93— Osaka, M. Depending on your goals, different parts of the remembered information can receive different amounts of resource.

Neuroscientists have suggested this resource could be neural activity , with different parts of the remembered information having varying amounts of activity devoted to them, depending on current priorities. A different theoretical approach instead argues that the capacity limit arises because different items will interfere with each other in memory. What researchers call maintenance rehearsal involves repeating the information mentally without regard to its meaning—for example, going through a grocery list and remembering the items just as words without regard to the meal they will become.

In contrast, elaborative rehearsal involves giving the information meaning and associating it with other information. For instance, mnemonics facilitate elaborative rehearsal by associating the first letter of each of a list of items with some other information that is already stored in memory.

It seems only elaborative rehearsal can help consolidate the information from working memory into a more lasting form—called long-term memory. In the visual domain, rehearsal may involve eye movements , with visual information being tied to spatial location. In other words, people may look at the location of the remembered information after it has gone in order to remind them of where it was.

Long-term memory is characterized by a much larger storage capacity. The information it holds is also more durable and stable.

Researchers have long regarded working memory as a gateway into long-term storage. Rehearse information in working memory enough and the memory can become more permanent.

Neuroscience makes a clear distinction between the two. It holds that working memory is related to temporary activation of neurons in the brain. In contrast, long-term memory is thought to be related to physical changes to neurons and their connections. This can explain the short-term nature of working memory as well as its greater susceptibility to interruptions or physical shocks. Performance on tests of working memory improves throughout childhood.

Its capacity is a major driving force of cognitive development. Performance on assessment tests increase steadily throughout infancy , childhood and the teenage years. Performance then reaches a peak in young adulthood. On the flip side, working memory is one of the cognitive abilities most sensitive to aging, and performance on these tests declines in old age.