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Research

Brad Postle

Ph.D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Associate Professor, Department of Psychology
postle@wisc.edu
http://psych.wisc.edu/postlab/

Learning and Memory in Aging and Age-Related Neurological Disease

Memory is a domain of cognitive function that often declines in normal aging and neurological disease. Our research focuses on two independent kinds of memory function: nondeclarative (or implicit) memory; and working memory. Previous research indicates that certain types of nondeclarative memory can be spared in neurological disease, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), that is characterized by marked impairment in declarative (or explicit) memory. Thus, one focus of our research program explores the boundary conditions of nondeclarative memory capacities in healthy elderly participants and in patients with AD.

A second focus of our research program investigates the nature of the working memory decline characteristic of normal aging, and of Parkinson's disease (PD). Working memory (also known informally as "short-term memory") is the cognitive capacity to retain information in conscious awareness when it is no longer present in the environment, and to use this information to guide behavior. Previous research has revealed a selective pattern of decline on tests of working memory in healthy elderly participants. Careful comparison of differences in working memory performance between healthy elderly participants and healthy young participants may help us better understand the neural and cognitive bases of this important cognitive function. We are currently exploring the hypothesis that declines in working memory in normal aging may be attributable in part to the accelerated decline in prefrontal cortex (PFC) function associated with normal aging.

In PD, studies have revealed a selective pattern of deficits on tests of spatial working memory in PD, suggesting important roles for the neostriatum and for dopamine in certain types of working memory behavior. An important next step for this work is to determine which neurophysiological and neurochemical factors may have contributed to this phenomenon. We are currently pursuing the hypothesis that a novel cognitive mechanism, prospective motor coding, may make important contributions to spatial working memory performance, and that the damage to the basal ganglia that is characteristic of PD may disrupt this mechanism.

Representative Publications
Postle, B.R. (2009). The hippocampus, memory, and consciousness. In S. Laureys & G. Tononi (Eds.), Neurology of consciousness (pp. 326-338). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Lewis-Peacock, J.A., & Postle, B.R. (2008). Temporary activation of long-term memory supports working memory. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(35), 8765-8771.

Hamidi, M., Tononi, G., & Postle, B.R. (2008). Evaluating frontal and parietal contributions to spatial working memory with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. Brain Research, 1230, 202-210.

Postle, B.R., & Hamidi, M. (2007). Nonvisual codes and nonvisual brain areas support visual working memory. Cerebral Cortex, 17(9), 2151-62.

Feredoes, E., & Postle, B.R. (2007). Localization of load sensitivity of working memory storage: Quantitatively and qualitatively discrepant results yielded by single-subject and group-averaged approaches to fMRI group analysis. NeuroImage, 35(2), 881-903. [Erratum in Neuroimage, 2007, 36(3), 1056.].

Feredoes, E., Tononi, G., & Postle, B.R. (2007). The neural bases of the short-term storage of verbal information are anatomically variable across individuals. Journal of Neuroscience, 27(41), 11003�11008.

Postle, B.R. (2007). Activated long-term memory? The bases of representation in working memory. In N. Osaka, R.H. Logie, & M. D'Esposito (Eds.), The cognitive neuroscience of working memory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Postle, B.R., Idzikowski, C., Della Sala, S., Logie, R.H., & Baddeley, A.D. (2006). The selective disruption of spatial working memory by eye movements. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 59, 100-120.

Postle, B.R. (2006). Working memory as an emergent property of the mind and brain. Neuroscience, 139, 23-38.

Postle, B.R. (2006). Distraction-spanning sustained activity during delayed recognition of locations. NeuroImage, 30, 950-962.

Postle, B.R., Ferrarelli, F., Hamidi, M., Feredoes, E., Massimini, M., Peterson, M., Alexander, A., & Tononi, G. (2006). Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation dissociates working memory manipulation from retention functions in prefrontal, but not posterior parietal, cortex. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 1712-1722.

Feredoes, E., Tononi, G., & Postle, B.R. (2006). Direct evidence for a prefrontal contribution to the control of proactive interference in verbal working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (USA), 103, 19530-19534.

Postle, B.R., & D�Esposito, M. (2003). Spatial working memory activity of the caudate nucleus is sensitive to frame of reference. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 3(2), 133-144.

Postle, B.R., Berger, J.S., Goldstein, J.H., Curtis, C.E., & D'Esposito, M. (2001). Behavioral and neurophysiological correlates of episodic coding, proactive interference, and list length effects in a running span verbal working memory task. Cognitive, Affective, and Behavioral Neuroscience, 1, 10-21.

Postle, B.R., Zarahn, E., & D'Esposito, M. (2000). Using event-related fMRI to assess delay-period activity during performance of spatial and nonspatial working memory tasks. Brain Research Protocols, 5, 57-66.

Postle, B.R., Stern, C.E., Rosen, B.R., & Corkin, S. (2000). An fMRI investigation of cortical contributions to spatial and nonspatial visual working memory. NeuroImage, 11, 409-423.

D'Esposito, M., Postle, B.R., & Rypma, B. (2000). Prefrontal cortical contributions to working memory: Evidence from event-related fMRI studies. Experimental Brain Research, 133, 3-11.

Postle, B.R., & D'Esposito, M. (2000). Evaluating models of the topographical organization of working memory function in frontal cortex with event-related fMRI. Psychobiology, 28, 132-145.

D'Esposito, M., & Postle, B.R. (2000). Neural correlates of component processes of working memory: Evidence from neuropsychological and pharmacological studies. In S. Monsell & J. Driver (Eds.), Control of cognitive processes: Attention & performance XVIII. Cambridge: MIT Press.

Postle, B.R., Berger, J.S., Taich, A.M., & D'Esposito, M. (2000). Activity in human frontal cortex associated with spatial working memory and saccadic behavior. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 12(Suppl. 2), 2-14.

D'Esposito, M. & Postle, B.R. (1999). The dependence of span and delayed-response performance on prefrontal cortex. Neuropsychologia, 37, 1303-1315.

Hood, K. L., Postle, B. R., & Corkin, S. (1999). An evaluation of the concurrent discrimination task as a measure of habit learning: Performance of amnesic subjects. Neuropsychologia, 37, 1375-1386.

Postle, B.R., & D'Esposito, M. (1999). "What" - then - "where" in visual working memory: An event-related fMRI study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 11, 585-597.

D'Esposito, M., Postle, B.R., Ballard, D., & Lease, J. (1999). Maintenance versus manipulation of information held in working memory: an fMRI study. Brain & Cognition, 41, 66-86.

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