Functional organization of working memory during delayed coping of verbal and visuo-spatial sequences in children aged 10–12 years. Analysis of ERPS in response to imperative signals

The functional organization of working memory (WM) was studied through the analysis of the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by the imperative auditory signal during delayed motor reproduction of visuo-spatial (broken lines) and verbal (letter) sequences in children aged 10–12 years (n = 28, 14 girls). We analyzed how the sequence domain (verbal or visuo-spatial), the imperative signal delay (500 ms or 3000 ms) and the mode of sequences presentation (static or dynamic) influenced on the ERP parameters. The magnitude and topography of the ERP positive components (P200 and P300) were found to depend specifically on the domain, the mode of sequences presentation and the time of their retention in WM. In both domains, ERP amplitude increased with the delay of the imperative signal demonstrated additional activation of the anterior and posterior associative cortical areas. Thus, the findings of the present study, along with previous results from adult participants (Kurgansky et al., 2022), indicate the transformation of the neuronal basis of representations of sequentially organized information during its storage in the WM. The age specificity of the functional organization of the WM in children aged 10–12 years expressed in the predominant involvement of the cortical areas of the left hemisphere during retention of both visuo-spatial and verbal sequential information.