Editorial: What is the parietal lobe contribution to human memory?
Simons, J.S. & Mayes, A.R. (2008) Neuropsychologia, 46, 1739-1742.
Abundant evidence from neuroimaging studies suggests that parietal regions support processes that tend to be extensively engaged during memory performance. However, recent neuropsychological data suggest that these processes, whatever they may be, might not be so critical to performance that circumscribed parietal lobe lesions produce the severe kinds of debilitating memory failures that are characteristic of amnesia. The goal of devising a theoretical explanation that takes account of both neuroimaging and neuropsychology data has been the motivation for a number of the papers contained in this Special Section. Contributed by leading researchers in the field of human memory, the papers provide an overview of the current state of the art in parietal lobe memory research, combining theoretical appraisals with reports of novel empirical findings from converging methods including neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and neuropsychology.