Working memory and dopamine: clinical and experimental clues.

Working memory has been successively considered as a mnesic or executive process. The cognitive processes involved in working memory and the executive functions are closely linked. Most authors currently agree that executive functions include planning, attentional maintenance, mental flexibility and attentional inhibition. Considering that the role of the central administrator, the main module of the working memory model, is to manage new situations, inhibit old non-pertinent schemes, or carry out attentional control, it is clear that it involves the different executive processes mentioned above. Therefore, even though the working memory model has its origins in the classic concept of short-term memory, it is now situated at the interface between memory and executive functions. The identification of the neuroanatomical support of these processes has been widely explored for many years. The involvement of monoaminergic neurotransmitter systems, and in particular of the dopaminergic system, in these complex cognitive functions has been suggested by numerous studies, both in humans and in non-human primates.