Cholinergic Enhancement and Increased Selectivity of Perceptual Processing during Working Memory

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2000-12, Vol.290 (5500), p.2315-2319
• Main Authors: Furey, Maura L., Pietrini, Pietro, Haxby, James V.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Acetylcholine - physiology; Analysis; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain Mapping; Cerebral Cortex - drug effects; Cerebral Cortex - physiology; Cholinergic mechanisms; Cholinergics; Cholinesterase Inhibitors - pharmacology; Cognition & reasoning; Cross-Over Studies; Double-Blind Method; Embryos; Face; Feedback (Response); Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Male; Memorization; Memory; Memory encoding; Memory, Short-Term - drug effects; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Messenger RNA; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Occipital Lobe - drug effects; Occipital Lobe - physiology; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Perceptual processing; Physiological aspects; Physostigmine - pharmacology; Placebos; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - drug effects; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Short Term Memory; Stimuli; Temporal Lobe - drug effects; Temporal Lobe - physiology; Time series; Visual cortex; Visual Cortex - drug effects; Visual Cortex - physiology; Visual Perception - drug effects; Visual Stimuli
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.290.5500.2315

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the mechanism by which cholinergic enhancement improves working memory. We studied the effect of the cholinesterase inhibitor physostigmine on subcomponents of this complex function. Cholinergic enhancement increased the selectivity of neural responses in extrastriate cortices during visual working memory, particularly during encoding. It also increased the participation of ventral extrastriate cortex during memory maintenance and decreased the participation of anterior pre-frontal cortex. These results indicate that cholinergic enhancement improves memory performance by augmenting the selectivity of perceptual processing during encoding, thereby simplifying processing demands during memory maintenance and reducing the need for prefrontal participation.