Contrasting visual working memory for verbal and non-verbal material with multivariate analysis of fMRI

► FMRI data from visual verbal and non-verbal working memory tasks were analyzed with spatial covariance analysis. ► Both tasks gave rise to activation patterns that changed monotonically with memory load. ► The activation patterns underlying encoding showed no similarity between verbal and non-verbal task. ► The activation patterns underlying maintenance showed great similarity between verbal and non-verbal task.