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Science 22 December 2000:
Vol. 290. no. 5500, pp. 2315 - 2319
DOI: 10.1126/science.290.5500.2315
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Reports

Cholinergic Enhancement and Increased Selectivity of Perceptual Processing During Working Memory

Maura L. Furey,1* Pietro Pietrini,2 James V. Haxby1

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, we investigated the mechanism by which cholinergic enhancement improves working memory. We studied the effect of the cholinesterase inhibitor physostigmine on subcomponents of this complex function. Cholinergic enhancement increased the selectivity of neural responses in extrastriate cortices during visual working memory, particularly during encoding. It also increased the participation of ventral extrastriate cortex during memory maintenance and decreased the participation of anterior prefrontal cortex. These results indicate that cholinergic enhancement improves memory performance by augmenting the selectivity of perceptual processing during encoding, thereby simplifying processing demands during memory maintenance and reducing the need for prefrontal participation.

1 Laboratory of Brain and Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
2 Department of Human and Environmental Sciences, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: furey{at}nih.gov

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