Neural mechanisms for response selection: Comparing selection of responses and items from working memory

Abstract

Recent functional imaging studies of working memory (WM) have suggested a relationship between the requirement for response selection and activity in dorsolateral prefrontal (DLPFC) and parietal regions. Although a number of WM operations are likely to occur during response selection, the current study was particularly interested in the contribution of this neural network to WM-based response selection when compared to the selection of an item from a list being maintained in memory, during a verbal learning task. The design manipulated stimulus-response mappings so that selecting an item from memory was not always accompanied with selecting a motor response. Functional activation during sele..