Stage and load effects on ERP topography during verbal and spatial working memory

Frontal-parietal neural networks play a significant role in the functional organization of visual working memory (WM). The relative contribution of material-specific information (e.g., verbal or spatial) on activation of WM circuitry is not fully understood. Process-specific models of WM propose that the activation of WM circuitry is more dependent on the stage of WM than on the type of information being processes. This study investigated the effects of WM information type (verbal, spatial), stage (encoding, maintenance), and load on both the anterior-posterior topography and lateralized scalp distributions of the event-related potential (ERP) P3 amplitude. Seventeen young adults performed verbal and spatial tasks that were equated for stimulus properties and response requirements. Both tasks were presented under 1- and 3-load conditions. The anterior-posterior topography of P3 amplitude at left hemisphere, midline, and right hemisphere scalp locations was affected by the stage of WM and the memory load, but not by the type of information. The encoding stage showed minimal load effects and was associated with a posterior-maximum P3 amplitude distribution. During the maintenance stage, probe letters were presented that were irrelevant to the previously encoded stimuli. Here, higher WM load produced relatively greater frontal and reduced parietal P3 amplitude compared to lower WM load. These anterior-posterior P3 amplitude patterns for encoding and maintenance were similar at left, midline, and right locations. Within the limitations of the study, our results tend to support a process-dependent activation of WM circuits in that P3 amplitude topography only differed as a result of WM stage and load, and not as a result of the type of information (verbal or spatial) presented.