Using neuroimaging to evaluate models of working memory and their implications for language processing

Abstract

The precise relationships that exist between verbal working memory and language processing remain underdetermined. We argue that while neuroimaging methods have the potential to provide important insights into the links between these two cognitive domains, an over-reliance on a single theoretical perspective has stunted progress toward this end. Specifically, neuroimaging studies in the domain of working memory have relied heavily on the theoretical framework provided by Baddeley's Multiple-Component Model. We reexamine the sufficiency of this model in accounting for a range of neuroimaging evidence, and draw attention to a set of findings that are not readily explained by a conventional mapping of this model onto specific neuroanatomical substrates. An alternative framework provided by Cowan's Embedded-Processes Model is then evaluated, and we conclude that this alternative view supports a reconceptualization of the contributions of Broca's area and the left inferior parietal cortex to working memory that can account for a wide range of findings. Importantly, this alternative account suggests links between working memory and language that are not afforded by currently prevailing interpretations.