Functional comparison of primacy, middle and recency retrieval in human auditory short-term memory: an event-related fMRI study.

Full Abstract

Primacy and recency effects refer to the better performance or shorter response time on the first and last items than the middle ones of a memory list. In order to investigate its neural basis in auditory short-term memory, event-related fMRI was used to measure brain activities when subject was recalling the first, the last, or the middle items. Recalling the middle item was associated with more extensive activation in the left parietal and visual cortex, basal ganglia, and dorsal cerebellum. Recalling items from different serial positions also resulted in different activation time courses in the bilateral primary auditory cortex, left prefrontal cortex and left premotor cortex. These data indicate that the auditory cortex may serve as a transient storage or the auditory input buffer, which seems to play an important role in the primacy and recency effects.

Author information

Author/s: Zhang, Da Ren (DR); Li, Zhi Hao (ZH); Chen, Xiang Chuan (XC); Wang, Zhao Xin (ZX); Zhang, Xiao Chu (XC); Meng, Xiao Mei (XM); He, Sheng (S); Hu, Xiao Ping (XP);

Affiliation: Department of Neurobiology and Biophysics, University of Science and Technology of China, HeFei 230027, PR China. xhu(-atsign-)emory.edu

Grants: R01MH55346 (Agency:NIMH NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Brain research. Cognitive brain research (Brain Res Cogn Brain Res), published in Netherlands. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2003-Mar; vol 16 (issue 1) : pp 91-8

Dates: Created 2003/02/18; Completed 2003/04/17; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12589893, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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