Paradoxical facilitation of working memory after basolateral amygdala damage

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dc.contributor.authorMorgan, Baraken_ZA
dc.contributor.authorTerburg, Daviden_ZA
dc.contributor.authorThornton, Helena Ben_ZA
dc.contributor.authorStein, Dan Jen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorvan Honk, Jacken_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2016-01-11T06:48:05Z
dc.date.available2016-01-11T06:48:05Z
dc.date.issued2012en_ZA
dc.description.abstractWorking memory is a vital cognitive capacity without which meaningful thinking and logical reasoning would be impossible. Working memory is integrally dependent upon prefrontal cortex and it has been suggested that voluntary control of working memory, enabling sustained emotion inhibition, was the crucial step in the evolution of modern humans. Consistent with this, recent fMRI studies suggest that working memory performance depends upon the capacity of prefrontal cortex to suppress bottom-up amygdala signals during emotional arousal. However fMRI is not well-suited to definitively resolve questions of causality. Moreover, the amygdala is neither structurally or functionally homogenous and fMRI studies do not resolve which amygdala sub-regions interfere with working memory. Lesion studies on the other hand can contribute unique causal evidence on aspects of brain-behaviour phenomena fMRI cannot "see". To address these questions we investigated working memory performance in three adult female subjects with bilateral basolateral amygdala calcification consequent to Urbach-Wiethe Disease and ten healthy controls. Amygdala lesion extent and functionality was determined by structural and functional MRI methods. Working memory performance was assessed using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III digit span forward task. State and trait anxiety measures to control for possible emotional differences between patient and control groups were administered. Structural MRI showed bilateral selective basolateral amygdala damage in the three Urbach-Wiethe Disease subjects and fMRI confirmed intact functionality in the remaining amygdala sub-regions. The three Urbach-Wiethe Disease subjects showed significant working memory facilitation relative to controls. Control measures showed no group anxiety differences. Results are provisionally interpreted in terms of a 'cooperation through competition' networks model that may account for the observed paradoxical functional facilitation effect.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationMorgan, B., Terburg, D., Thornton, H. B., Stein, D. J., & van Honk, J. (2012). Paradoxical facilitation of working memory after basolateral amygdala damage. <i>PLoS One</i>, http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16226en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationMorgan, Barak, David Terburg, Helena B Thornton, Dan J Stein, and Jack van Honk "Paradoxical facilitation of working memory after basolateral amygdala damage." <i>PLoS One</i> (2012) http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16226en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationMorgan, B., Terburg, D., Thornton, H. B., Stein, D. J., & van Honk, J. (2012). Paradoxical facilitation of working memory after basolateral amygdala damage. PloS one, 7(6), e38116. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0038116en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article AU - Morgan, Barak AU - Terburg, David AU - Thornton, Helena B AU - Stein, Dan J AU - van Honk, Jack AB - Working memory is a vital cognitive capacity without which meaningful thinking and logical reasoning would be impossible. Working memory is integrally dependent upon prefrontal cortex and it has been suggested that voluntary control of working memory, enabling sustained emotion inhibition, was the crucial step in the evolution of modern humans. Consistent with this, recent fMRI studies suggest that working memory performance depends upon the capacity of prefrontal cortex to suppress bottom-up amygdala signals during emotional arousal. However fMRI is not well-suited to definitively resolve questions of causality. Moreover, the amygdala is neither structurally or functionally homogenous and fMRI studies do not resolve which amygdala sub-regions interfere with working memory. Lesion studies on the other hand can contribute unique causal evidence on aspects of brain-behaviour phenomena fMRI cannot "see". To address these questions we investigated working memory performance in three adult female subjects with bilateral basolateral amygdala calcification consequent to Urbach-Wiethe Disease and ten healthy controls. Amygdala lesion extent and functionality was determined by structural and functional MRI methods. Working memory performance was assessed using the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III digit span forward task. State and trait anxiety measures to control for possible emotional differences between patient and control groups were administered. Structural MRI showed bilateral selective basolateral amygdala damage in the three Urbach-Wiethe Disease subjects and fMRI confirmed intact functionality in the remaining amygdala sub-regions. The three Urbach-Wiethe Disease subjects showed significant working memory facilitation relative to controls. Control measures showed no group anxiety differences. Results are provisionally interpreted in terms of a 'cooperation through competition' networks model that may account for the observed paradoxical functional facilitation effect. DA - 2012 DB - OpenUCT DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0038116 DP - University of Cape Town J1 - PLoS One LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2012 T1 - Paradoxical facilitation of working memory after basolateral amygdala damage TI - Paradoxical facilitation of working memory after basolateral amygdala damage UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16226 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/16226
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038116
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationMorgan B, Terburg D, Thornton HB, Stein DJ, van Honk J. Paradoxical facilitation of working memory after basolateral amygdala damage. PLoS One. 2012; http://hdl.handle.net/11427/16226.en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisherPublic Library of Scienceen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentMRC/UCT Medical Imaging Research Uniten_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Health Sciencesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.rightsThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.en_ZA
dc.rights.holder© 2012 Morgan et alen_ZA
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0en_ZA
dc.sourcePLoS Oneen_ZA
dc.source.urihttp://journals.plos.org/plosoneen_ZA
dc.subject.otherAmygdalaen_ZA
dc.subject.otherWorking memoryen_ZA
dc.subject.otherFunctional magnetic resonance imagingen_ZA
dc.subject.otherPrefrontal cortexen_ZA
dc.subject.otherAttentionen_ZA
dc.subject.otherEmotionsen_ZA
dc.subject.otherAnxietyen_ZA
dc.subject.otherMagnetic resonance imagingen_ZA
dc.titleParadoxical facilitation of working memory after basolateral amygdala damageen_ZA
dc.typeJournal Articleen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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