关键词: 肢体运动信息, 空间位置运动, 身体模式运动, 空间工作记忆, 运动相关皮层

Abstract:

Studies regarding the multicomponent model of working memory mainly focus on the storage of featural properties, spatiotemporal properties and verbal information of objects, as well as the binding of these information (e.g., Allen et al., 2015; Fellman et al., 2017; Logie, 1995; Son et al., 2020; Zhao et al., 2019). The storage of limb movement information has not been explored. Limb movements are one of the important ways individuals interact with their environment. Exploring the storage of limb movement information is helpful to deeply clarify the storage modes of various types of information, as well as understand how different types of information transcoded and interacted with each other. Smyth et al. (1988) proposed two types of limb movements, i.e., movement pattern (including a gesture or movement to be imitated, such as an arabesque in ballet) and movement to positions in space (such as picking up a pen) according to the different goals of movements. The goal of movement pattern is the body pattern, whereas achieving a spatial target is the goal of movement to positions in space. In other words, movement pattern refers to kinesthetic or motor coding in imitation; movement to positions in space refers to the use of movement in visuo-spatial processing. In the field of perception and working memory for limb movement, previous studies did not regard the two types of limb movements as a whole. On the contrary, they usually explored the storage of information of movement to positions in space and body movement patterns information respectively or even compared them in one study. Based on this, the current study reviewed and compared the storage mechanism of these two types of limb movement information.

Studies on movement to positions in space have revealed that the working memory task of movement to positions affects the encoding of spatial working memory, but it is separated from visual working memory and verbal working memory. In addition, information of movement to positions in space shared brain area (the superior parietal lobule) with spatial information of the object rather than with verbal information and information of the object’s featural properties; information of movement to positions in space activates unique brain areas (the contralateral motor cortex, the primary motor cortex, the ventral supplementary motor area, the left supramotor cortical areas and the primary motor cortex, etc.) that are independent of the other three kinds of information. Researches on body movement patterns have revealed that working memory for body movement patterns and verbal working memory are separated. In addition, the storage of body movement patterns only activates the brain regions that store spatial information of the object, rather than the brain regions that store information of the object’s featural properties and verbal information. More importantly, only the storage of body movement patterns activates the movement-related cortex (the middle temporal). Therefore, the storage of two kinds of limb movement information is independent of the phonological loop and the visual subsystem in the visuospatial sketchpad and needs the participation of the spatial subsystem in the visuospatial sketchpad; movement to positions in space and body movement patterns activate different movement-related cortexes that are independent of the phonological loop, the visual subsystem and the spatial subsystem in the visuospatial sketchpad. These results show that the existing multicomponent model of working memory cannot fully explain the storage of limb movement information. It is implied that there is a “limb movement system” in the working memory system that is specific to limb movement information, belongs to visuospatial sketchpad and coexists with the visual subsystem and spatial subsystem. The brain areas activated in the “limb movement system” vary with different kinds of limb movements.

Key words: body movement information, movement to positions in space, body movement patterns, spatial working memory, movement-related cortex