buffer occurred through conscious awareness". The episodic buffer allows individuals to use integrated units of information they already have to imagine new concepts. Since this is likely "an attention-demanding process...the buffer would depend heavily on the Central Executive". The main motivation for introducing this component was the observation that some (in particular, highly intelligent) patients with amnesia, who presumably have no ability to encode new information in long-term memory, nevertheless have good short-term recall of stories, recalling much more information than could be held in the phonological loop. "The episodic buffer appears...capable of storing bound features and making them available to conscious awareness but not itself responsible for the process of binding". It is assumed that "conscious access to the phonological loop or sketchpad may operate via the buffer". This is based on the assumption that both the visuo-spatial sketchpad and phonological loop act as minor buffers, combining information within their sensory area. The episodic buffer may also interact with smell and taste. Biology/neuroscience There is much evidence for a brief memory buffer, as distinct from the long term store. The phonological loop seems to be connected to activation in the left hemisphere, more specifically the temporal lobe. The visuo-spatial sketchpad activates different areas depending on task difficulty; less intense tasks seem to activate in the occipital lobe, whereas more complex tasks appear in the parietal lobe. The central executive is still a mystery, although it would seem to be more or less located in the frontal lobes of the brain. The episodic buffer seems to be in both hemispheres (bilateral) with activations in both the frontal and temporal lobes, and even the left portion of the hippocampus. In terms of genetics, the gene ROBO1 has been associated with phonological buffer integrity or length. Validity of the model The strength of Baddeley's model is its ability to integrate a large number of findings from work on short-term and working memory. Additionally, the mechanisms of the slave systems, especially the phonological loop, has inspired a wealth of research in experimental psychology, neuropsychology, and cognitive neuroscience. However, criticisms have been raised, for instance of the phonological-loop component, because some details of the findings are not easily explained by the original Baddeley & Hitch model, including the controversy regarding the 7±2 rule. The episodic buffer is seen as a helpful addition to the model of working memory, but it has not been investigated