CapMan: independent investigation of capacity and manipulation with a new working memory paradigm

In a new working memory paradigm, CapMan, we independently investigated brain activity associated with capacity and manipulation of information. The investigation of Capacity, resulted in activation of the fronto-parietal network of regions that overlapped with areas usually found to be active in working memory tasks. The investigation of Manipulation revealed a more dorsal network of areas that also overlapped with areas usually found to be active in working memory tasks, but that did not overlap with the areas associated with Capacity. The CapMan paradigm thus appears to be able to separate the processes associated with capacity and manipulation increases and promises to be a valuable addition to the tools available for the study of working memory.