Abstract
Mediating proactive interference (PI), the deleterious effect of antecedent information on current memory representations, is believed to be a key function of prefrontal cortex (PFC). Item-specific PI results when an invalid probe matches a memorandum from the preceding trial; item-nonspecific PI is produced by the accumulation of no-longer-relevant items from previous trials. We tested the hypothesis that these two types of PI are mediated by common PFC-based processes with an fMRI study of a delayed-recognition task designed to produce both types of PI. Our results indicated that the fMRI correlates of both effects were restricted both to Brodmann’s area 45 in the left hemisphere and to the memory probe epoch of the trial. These results suggest that a unification of the literatures and approaches that have independently studied these phenomena might offer a fruitful new perspective from which to study the relations between working memory, executive control, and the PFC.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aguirre, G. K., Zarahn, E., & D’Esposito, M. (1998). The variability of human, BOLD hemodynamic responses. NeuroImage, 8, 360–369.
Algina, J., & Keselman, H. J. (1997). Detecting repeated measures effects with univariate and multivariate statistics. Psychological Methods, 2, 208–218.
Attneave, F., & Arnoult, M. D. (1956). The quantitative study of shape and pattern perception. Psychological Bulletin, 53, 452–471.
Battig, W. F., & Montague, W. E. (1969). Category norms for verbal items in 56 categories: A replication and extension of the Connecticut category names. Journal of Experimental Psychology Monographs, 80(3, Pt. 2).
Boynton, G. M., Engel, S. A., Glover, G. H., & Heeger, D. J. (1996). Linear systems analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging in human V1. Journal of Neuroscience, 16, 4207–4221.
Brandon, M., Hirshorn, E. A., Jha, A. P., & Thompson-Schill, S. L. (2004, April). Proactive interference resolution during nonverbal working memory: Evidence for domain-general processing in LIFG. Poster presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco.
Braver, T. S., Gray, J. R., & Burgess, G. C. (in press). Explaining the many varieties of working memory variation: Dual mechanisms of cognitive control. In A. Conway, C. Jarrold, M. Kane, A. Miyake, & J. Towse (Eds.), Variation in working memory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bunge, S. A., Ochsner, K. N., Desmond, J. E., Glover, G. H., & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (2001). Prefrontal regions involved in keeping information in and out of mind. Brain, 124, 2074–2086.
Burgess, G. C., & Braver, T. S. (2004, April). Dual mechanisms of cognitive control over interference. Poster presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco.
Bush, G., Luu, P., & Posner, M. I. (2000). Cognitive and emotional influences in anterior cingulate cortex. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 215–222.
Damasio, H. (1995). Human brain anatomy in computerized images. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Derrfuss, J., Brass, M., & von Cramon, Y. (2004, April). Cognitive control in the posterior frontolateral cortex: Evidence from common activations in task coordination, interference control, and working memory. Poster presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco.
D’Esposito, M., Postle, B. R., Jonides, J., & Smith, E. E. (1999). The neural substrate and temporal dynamics of interference effects in working memory as revealed by event-related functional MRI. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96, 7514–7519.
Friston, K. J., Holmes, A. P., Poline, J.-B., Heather, J. D., & Frackowiak, R. S. J. (1995). Analysis of fMRI time-series revisited. NeuroImage, 2, 45–53.
Goldman-Rakic, P. S. (1992). Working memory and the mind. Scientific American, 267, 110–117.
Hamilton, A. C., & Martin, R. C. (in press). Dissociations among tasks involving inhibition: A single-case study. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience.
Handwerker, D. A., Ollinger, J. M., & D’Esposito, M. (2004). Variation of BOLD hemodynamic responses across subjects and brain regions and their effects on statistical analyses. NeuroImage, 21, 1639–1651.
Hasher, L., & Zacks, R. T. (1988). Working memory, comprehension, and aging: A review and a new view. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 22, pp. 193–225). San Diego: Academic Press.
Hedden, T., & Yoon, C. (2004, April). Neuropsychological measures of distinct executive functions predict interference in short-term memory for older adults [Abstract]. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting Program 2004, 164.
Jonides, J., Badre, D., Curtis, C., Thompson-Schill, S., & Smith, E. E. (2002). Mechanisms of conflict resolution in prefrontal cortex. In D. T. Stuss & R. T. Knight (Eds.), Principles of frontal lobe function (pp. 233–245). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jonides, J., Marshuetz, C., Smith, E. E., Reuter-Lorenz, P. A., & Koeppe, R. A. (2000). Age differences in behavior and PET activation reveal differences in interference resolution in verbal working memory. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12, 188–196.
Jonides, J., Smith, E. E., Marshuetz, C., Koeppe, R. A., & Reuter-Lorenz, P. A. (1998). Inhibition of verbal working memory revealed by brain activation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 95, 8410–8413.
Josephs, O., Turner, R., & Friston, K. (1997). Event-related fMRI. Human Brain Mapping, 5, 243–248.
Keppel, G., & Underwood, B. J. (1962). Proactive inhibition in shortterm retention of single items. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 1, 153–161.
Knight, R. T., Staines, W. R., Swick, D., & Chao, L. L. (1999). Prefrontal cortex regulates inhibition and excitation in distributed neural networks. Acta Psychologica, 101, 159–178.
Kwong, K. K., Belliveau, J. W., Chesler, D. A., Goldberg, I. E., Weisskoff, R. M., Poncelet, B. P., Kennedy, D. N., Hoppel, B. E., Cohen, M. S., Turner, R., Cheng, H.-M., Brady, T. J., & Rosen, B. R. (1992). Dynamic magnetic resonance imaging of human brain activity during primary sensory stimulation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 89, 5675–5679.
Leung, H.-C., & Zhang, J. X. (2004). Interference resolution in spatial working memory. NeuroImage, 23, 1013–1019.
Lustig, C., May, C. P., & Hasher, L. (2001). Working memory span and the role of proactive interference. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 199–207.
Martin, R. C., Hamilton, A. C., Lipszyc, M., & Potts, G. F. (2004, April). Manipulation of inhibition demands in a working memory task: Evidence from patient and ERP data. Poster presented at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting, San Francisco.
May, C. P., Hasher, L., & Kane, M. J. (1999). The role of interference in memory span. Memory & Cognition, 27, 759–767.
Monsell, S. (1978). Recency, immediate recognition memory, and reaction time. Cognitive Psychology, 10, 465–501.
Nelson, J. K., Reuter-Lorenz, P. A., Sylvester, C. Y. C., Jonides, J., & Smith, E. E. (2003). Dissociable neural mechanisms underlying response-based and familiarity-based conflict in working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100, 11171–11175.
Ogawa, S., Tank, D. W., Menon, R., Ellermann, J. M., Kim, S. G., Merkle, H., & Ugurbil, K. (1992). Intrinsic signal changes accompanying sensory stimulation: Functional brain mapping with magnetic resonance imaging. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 89, 5951–5955.
Postle, B. R., Awh, E., Jonides, J., Smith, E. E., & D’Esposito, M. (2004). The where and how of attention-based rehearsal in spatial working memory. Cognitive Brain Research, 20, 194–205.
Postle, B. R., Berger, J. S., & D’Esposito, M. (1999). Functional neuroanatomical double dissociation of mnemonic and executive control processes contributing to working memory performance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96, 12959–12964.
Postle, B. R., Berger, J. S., Goldstein, J. H., Curtis, C. E., & D’Esposito, M. (2001). Behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of episodic coding, proactive interference, and list length effects in a running span verbal working memory task. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 1, 10–21.
Postle, B. R., & Brush, L. N. (2004). The neural bases of the effects of item-nonspecific proactive interference in working memory. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 4, 379–392.
Postle, B. R., & D’Esposito, M. (1999). “What”-then-“where” in visual working memory: An event-related fMRI study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 11, 585–597.
Postle, B. R., & D’Esposito, M. (2003). Spatial working memory activity of the caudate nucleus is sensitive to frame of reference. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 3, 133–144.
Postle, B. R., D’Esposito, M., & Corkin, S. (in press). Effects of verbal and nonverbal interference on spatial and object visual working memory. Memory & Cognition.
Postle, B. R., Druzgal, T. J., & D’Esposito, M. (2003). Seeking the neural substrates of working memory storage. Cortex, 39, 927–946.
Postle, B. R., Messner, M., & Cappa, S. (2004). Verbal contributions to short-term retention of color information. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Postle, B. R., Zarahn, E., & D’Esposito, M. (2000). Using eventrelated f MRI to assess delay-period activity during performance of spatial and nonspatial working memory tasks. Brain Research Protocols, 5, 57–66.
Reynolds, J. R., Donaldson, D. I., Wagner, A. D., & Braver, T. S. (2004). Item- and task-level processes in the left inferior prefrontal cortex: Positive and negative correlates of encoding. NeuroImage, 21, 1472–1483.
Simons, D. J. (1996). In sight, out of mind: When object representations fail. Psychological Science, 7, 301–305.
Thompson-Schill, S. L., Jonides, J., Marshuetz, C., Smith, E. E., D’Esposito, M., Kan, I. P., Knight, R. T., & Swick, D. (2002). Effects of frontal lobe damage on interference effects in working memory. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience, 2, 109–120.
Vanderplas, J. M., & Garvin, E. A. (1959). The association value of random shapes. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 57, 147–154.
West, S. G., Biesanz, J. C., & Kwok, O.-M. (2004). Within-subject and longitudinal experiments: Design and analysis issues. In C. Sansone, C. C. Morf, & A. T. Panter (Eds.), The Sage handbook of methods in social psychology (pp. 287–312). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Wickens, D. D. (1973). Some characteristics of word encoding. Memory & Cognition, 1, 485–490.
Wickens, D. D., Born, D. G., & Allen, C. K. (1963). Proactive inhibition and item similarity in short-term memory. Journal of Verbal Learning & Verbal Behavior, 2, 440–445.
Worsley, K. J., & Friston, K. J. (1995). Analysis of fMRI time-series revisited—again. NeuroImage, 2, 173–182.
Zarahn, E., Aguirre, G. K., & D’Esposito, M. (1997). A trial-based experimental design for fMRI. NeuroImage, 6, 122–138.
Zhang, J. X., Leung, H.-C., & Johnson, M. K. (2003). Frontal activations associated with accessing and evaluating information in working memory: An fMRI study. NeuroImage, 20, 1531–1539.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
This research was supported by National Institutes of Health Grant MH064498.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Postle, B.R., Brush, L.N. & Nick, A.M. Prefrontal cortex and the mediation of proactive interference in working memory. Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience 4, 600–608 (2004). https://doi.org/10.3758/CABN.4.4.600
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/CABN.4.4.600