The neurophysiology of working memory development: from childhood to adolescence and young adulthood.

Working memory (WM) is an important cognitive function that is necessary to perform our daily activities. The present review briefly describes the most accepted models underlying WM and the neural networks involved in its processing. The review focuses on how the neurophysiological mechanisms develop with age in the periods from childhood to adolescence and young adulthood.

Fronto-temporo-occipital activity changes with age during a visual working memory developmental study in children, adolescents and adults.

The present report analyzes differences in cerebral sources among several age groups with respect to the encoding, maintenance and recognition of stimuli during a visual working memory task. Differential intensity of involvement of anterior and posterior areas during working memory processing is expected at different ages. For that, 168 subjects between 6 and 26 years old performed a visual delayed match-to-sample task.