From storage to manipulation: How the neural correlates of verbal working memory reflect varying demands on inner speech.

By C. Marvel, John E. Desmond. 2012

125 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The ability to store and manipulate online information may be enhanced by an inner speech mechanism that draws upon motor brain regions. Neural correlates of this mechanism were examined using event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Sixteen participants completed two conditions of a verbal working memory task. In both conditions, participants viewed one or two target letters. In the “storage” condition, these targets were held in mind across a delay. Then a probe letter was presented, and participants indicated by button press whether the probe matched the targets. In the “manipulation” condition, participants identified new targets by thinking two alphabetical letters forward of each original target (e.g., f-->h). Participants subsequently indicated whether the probe matched the newly derived targets. Brain activity during the storage and manipulation conditions was examined specifically during the delay phase in order to directly compare manipulation versus storage processes. Activations that were common to both conditions, yet disproportionately greater with manipulation, were observed in the left inferior frontal cortex, premotor cortex, and anterior insula, bilaterally in the parietal lobes and superior cerebellum, and in the right inferior cerebellum. This network shares substrates with overt speech and may represent an inner speech pathway that increases activity with greater working memory demands. Additionally, an inverse correlation was observed between manipulation-related brain activity (on correct trials) and test accuracy in the left premotor cortex, anterior insula, and bilateral superior cerebellum. This inverse relationship may represent intensification of inner speech as one struggles to maintain performance levels.

Subfields: Cognitive Neuroscience, Neurology, Social Psychology, Neuroscience

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Citations in the corpus

Inner Speech: Development, Cognitive Functions, Phenomenology, and Neurobiology (2015, background): “…and overlapping networks for verbal working memory maintenance and overt speech in frontotemporal regions, along with recruitment of the cerebellum (Marvel & Desmond, 2012) and posterior temporoparietal structures such as the planum temporale and inferior parietal lobule (Andreatta, Stemple,…”
Consensus Paper: The Cerebellum's Role in Movement and Cognition (2013, background): “Yet Marvel and Desmond [148] found that increased lobule VI cerebellar activity in VWM correlates to lower overall accuracy.”
eview hat is that little voice inside my head ? Inner speech henomenology , its role in cognitive performance , and ts relation to self-monitoring (2014, background): “It has been suggested that inner speech may nteract with working memory in order to enhance the encoding of ew material [7,8].”
Inner experience in the scanner: can high fidelity apprehensions of inner experience be integrated with fMRI? (2014, background): “…and the superior and middle temporal gyri (Price, 2012; Gernsbacher and Kaschak, 2003), with inner speech processes in particular being linked to activation in left IFG and lateral temporal areas (Shergill et al., 2001, 2002; Jones and Fernyhough, 2007; Marvel and Desmond, 2012; Kühn et al., 2013).”