Different hemispheric specializations for pitch and audioverbal working memory

Abstract

Critical times of involvement of areas important to working memory were examined both with pitch and audioverbal N-back tasks using single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). TMS was administered to 12 healthy participants over dorsolateral prefrontal and inferior parietal regions in each hemisphere at four different times after stimulus onset (250, 450, 650, and 850 ms). For the pitch N-back task, interference with working memory, as evidenced by a significant increase in reaction time, was observed with TMS over the right hemisphere regions. In contrast, for the audioverbal N-back task, TMS resulted in significantly increased reaction time only for left inferior parietal TMS delivered 450 ms after stimulus onset. These results imply different hemispheric specializations for pitch and audioverbal working memory.