A parametric study of prefrontal cortex involvement in human working memory

Although recent neuroimaging studies suggest that prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in working memory (WM), the relationship between PFC activity and memory load has not yet been well-described in humans. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to probe PFC activity during a sequential letter task in which memory load was varied in an incremental fashion. In all nine subjects studied, dorsolateral and left inferior regions of PFC were identified that exhibited a linear relationship between activity and WM load. Furthermore, these same regions were independently identified through direct correlations of the fMRI signal with a behavioral measure that indexes WM function during task performance. A second experiment, using whole-brain imaging techniques, both replicated these findings and identified additional brain regions showing a linear relationship with load, suggesting a distributed circuit that participates with PFC in subserving WM. Taken together, these results provide a 'dose-response curve' describing the involvement of both PFC and related brain regions in WM function, and highlight the benefits of using graded, parametric designs in neuroimaging research.