Incidental encoding of visual information in temporal reference frames in working memory

AbstractVisual working memory has been defined as a system of limited capacity that enables the maintenance and manipulation of visual information. However, some perceptual features like Gestalt grouping could improve visual working memory effectiveness. In two different experiments, we aimed to explore how the presence of elements grouped by color similarity affects the change detection performance of both, grouped and non-grouped items. We combined a change detection task with a retrocue paradigm in which a six item array had to be remembered. An always valid, variable-delay retrocue appeared in some trials during the retention interval, either after 100 ms (iconic-trace period) or 1400 ms (working memory period), signaling the location of the probe. The results indicated that similarity grouping biased the information entered into the visual working memory, improving change detection accuracy only for previously grouped probes, but hindering change detection for non-grouped probes in certain conditions (Exp. 1). However, this bottom-up automatic encoding bias was overridden when participants were explicitly instructed to ignore grouped items as they were irrelevant for the task (Exp. 2).

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Acute Intake of a Grape and Blueberry Polyphenol-Rich Extract Ameliorates Cognitive Performance in Healthy Young Adults During a Sustained Cognitive Effort

Antioxidants ◽

10.3390/antiox8120650 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 (12) ◽

pp. 650 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Pierre Philip ◽

Patricia Sagaspe ◽

Jacques Taillard ◽

Claire Mandon ◽

Joël Constans ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Cognitive Performance ◽

Visual Information ◽

Fold Increase ◽

Cognitive Effort ◽

Double Blind Study ◽

Level Of Evidence ◽

Double Blind ◽

Safe Alternative ◽

Memory And Attention

Despite an increasing level of evidence supporting the individual beneficial effect of polyphenols on cognitive performance, information related to the potential synergistic action of these phytonutrients on cognitive performance during a prolonged cognitive effort is currently lacking. This study investigated the acute and sustained action of a polyphenols-rich extract from grape and blueberry (PEGB), on working memory and attention in healthy students during a prolonged and intensive cognitive effort. In this randomised, cross-over, double blind study, 30 healthy students consumed 600 mg of PEGB or a placebo. Ninety minutes after product intake, cognitive functions were assessed for one hour using a cognitive demand battery including serial subtraction tasks, a rapid visual information processing (RVIP) task and a visual analogical scale. Flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and plasma flavan-3-ols metabolites quantification were also performed. A 2.5-fold increase in serial three subtraction variation net scores was observed following PEGB consumption versus placebo (p < 0.001). A trend towards significance was also observed with RVIP percentage of correct answers (p = 0.058). No treatment effect was observed on FMD. Our findings suggest that consumption of PEGB coupled with a healthy lifestyle may be a safe alternative to acutely improve working memory and attention during a sustained cognitive effort.

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Temporal Dynamics of Attention during Encoding versus Maintenance of Working Memory: Complementary Views from Event-related Potentials and Alpha-band Oscillations

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_00727 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 27 (3) ◽

pp. 492-508 ◽

Cited By ~ 62

Author(s):

Nicholas E. Myers ◽

Lena Walther ◽

George Wallis ◽

Mark G. Stokes ◽

Anna C. Nobre

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Information ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Recall Performance ◽

Event Related Potentials ◽

Alpha Band ◽

Related Potentials ◽

Frontoparietal Control Network ◽

Anticipatory Attention ◽

Processing Differences

Working memory (WM) is strongly influenced by attention. In visual WM tasks, recall performance can be improved by an attention-guiding cue presented before encoding (precue) or during maintenance (retrocue). Although precues and retrocues recruit a similar frontoparietal control network, the two are likely to exhibit some processing differences, because precues invite anticipation of upcoming information whereas retrocues may guide prioritization, protection, and selection of information already in mind. Here we explored the behavioral and electrophysiological differences between precueing and retrocueing in a new visual WM task designed to permit a direct comparison between cueing conditions. We found marked differences in ERP profiles between the precue and retrocue conditions. In line with precues primarily generating an anticipatory shift of attention toward the location of an upcoming item, we found a robust lateralization in late cue-evoked potentials associated with target anticipation. Retrocues elicited a different pattern of ERPs that was compatible with an early selection mechanism, but not with stimulus anticipation. In contrast to the distinct ERP patterns, alpha-band (8–14 Hz) lateralization was indistinguishable between cue types (reflecting, in both conditions, the location of the cued item). We speculate that, whereas alpha-band lateralization after a precue is likely to enable anticipatory attention, lateralization after a retrocue may instead enable the controlled spatiotopic access to recently encoded visual information.

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Greater Visual Working Memory Capacity for Visually Matched Stimuli When They Are Perceived as Meaningful

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn_a_01693 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 33 (5) ◽

pp. 902-918 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Isabel E. Asp ◽

Viola S. Störmer ◽

Timothy F. Brady

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Visual Information ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Working Memory Capacity ◽

Visual Complexity ◽

Memory Capacity ◽

Subjective Perception ◽

Neural Delay ◽

Meaningful Stimuli

Abstract Almost all models of visual working memory—the cognitive system that holds visual information in an active state—assume it has a fixed capacity: Some models propose a limit of three to four objects, where others propose there is a fixed pool of resources for each basic visual feature. Recent findings, however, suggest that memory performance is improved for real-world objects. What supports these increases in capacity? Here, we test whether the meaningfulness of a stimulus alone influences working memory capacity while controlling for visual complexity and directly assessing the active component of working memory using EEG. Participants remembered ambiguous stimuli that could either be perceived as a face or as meaningless shapes. Participants had higher performance and increased neural delay activity when the memory display consisted of more meaningful stimuli. Critically, by asking participants whether they perceived the stimuli as a face or not, we also show that these increases in visual working memory capacity and recruitment of additional neural resources are because of the subjective perception of the stimulus and thus cannot be driven by physical properties of the stimulus. Broadly, this suggests that the capacity for active storage in visual working memory is not fixed but that more meaningful stimuli recruit additional working memory resources, allowing them to be better remembered.

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Different trait markers for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: a neurocognitive approach

Psychological Medicine ◽

10.1017/s0033291701004068 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 31 (5) ◽

pp. 915-922 ◽

Cited By ~ 146

Author(s):

S. KÉRI ◽

O. KELEMEN ◽

G. BENEDEK ◽

Z. JANKA

Keyword(s):

Bipolar Disorder ◽

Working Memory ◽

Information Processing ◽

Cognitive Functions ◽

Visual Information ◽

Spatial Information ◽

Target Location ◽

Memory Task ◽

Visual Information Processing ◽

Verbal Recall

Background. The aim of this study was to assess visual information processing and cognitive functions in unaffected siblings of patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and control subjects with a negative family history.Methods. The siblings of patients with schizophrenia (N = 25), bipolar disorder (N = 20) and the controls subjects (N = 20) were matched for age, education, IQ, and psychosocial functioning, as indexed by the Global Assessment of Functioning scale. Visual information processing was measured using two visual backward masking (VBM) tests (target location and target identification). The evaluation of higher cognitive functions included spatial and verbal working memory, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, letter fluency, short/long delay verbal recall and recognition.Results. The relatives of schizophrenia patients were impaired in the VBM procedure, more pronouncedly at short interstimulus intervals (14, 28, 42 ms) and in the target location task. Marked dysfunctions were also found in the spatial working memory task and in the long delay verbal recall test. In contrast, the siblings of patients with bipolar disorder exhibited spared performances with the exception of a deficit in the long delay recall task.Conclusions. Dysfunctions of sensory-perceptual analysis (VBM) and working memory for spatial information distinguished the siblings of schizophrenia patients from the siblings of individuals with bipolar disorder. Verbal recall deficit was present in both groups, suggesting a common impairment of the fronto-hippocampal system.

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Emergence of Content-Agnostic Information Processing by a Robot Using Active Inference, Visual Attention, Working Memory, and Planning

Neural Computation ◽

10.1162/neco_a_01412 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-55

Author(s):

Jeffrey Frederic Queisser ◽

Minju Jung ◽

Takazumi Matsumoto ◽

Jun Tani

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Information Processing ◽

Visual Attention ◽

Visual Information ◽

Current Model ◽

Large Network ◽

Active Inference ◽

Goal State ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Simulation Results

Abstract Generalization by learning is an essential cognitive competency for humans. For example, we can manipulate even unfamiliar objects and can generate mental images before enacting a preplan. How is this possible? Our study investigated this problem by revisiting our previous study (Jung, Matsumoto, & Tani, 2019), which examined the problem of vision-based, goal-directed planning by robots performing a task of block stacking. By extending the previous study, our work introduces a large network comprising dynamically interacting submodules, including visual working memory (VWMs), a visual attention module, and an executive network. The executive network predicts motor signals, visual images, and various controls for attention, as well as masking of visual information. The most significant difference from the previous study is that our current model contains an additional VWM. The entire network is trained by using predictive coding and an optimal visuomotor plan to achieve a given goal state is inferred using active inference. Results indicate that our current model performs significantly better than that used in Jung et al. (2019), especially when manipulating blocks with unlearned colors and textures. Simulation results revealed that the observed generalization was achieved because content-agnostic information processing developed through synergistic interaction between the second VWM and other modules during the course of learning, in which memorizing image contents and transforming them are dissociated. This letter verifies this claim by conducting both qualitative and quantitative analysis of simulation results.

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Behavioral Reference Frames for Planning Human Reaching Movements

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.01362.2005 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 96 (1) ◽

pp. 352-362 ◽

Cited By ~ 53

Author(s):

Sabine M. Beurze ◽

Stan Van Pelt ◽

W. Pieter Medendorp

Keyword(s):

Reference Frame ◽

Visual Information ◽

Reference Frames ◽

Target Position ◽

Movement Planning ◽

Reaching Movements ◽

Hand Position ◽

Pointing Error ◽

Movement Vector ◽

Common Reference

At some stage in the process of a sensorimotor transformation for a reaching movement, information about the current position of the hand and information about the location of the target must be encoded in the same frame of reference to compute the hand-to-target difference vector. Two main hypotheses have been proposed regarding this reference frame: an eye-centered and a body-centered frame. Here we evaluated these hypotheses using the pointing errors that subjects made when planning and executing arm movements to memorized targets starting from various initial hand positions while keeping gaze fixed in various directions. One group of subjects ( n = 10) was tested without visual information about hand position during movement planning (unseen-hand condition); another group ( n = 8) was tested with hand and target position simultaneously visible before movement onset (seen-hand condition). We found that both initial hand position and gaze fixation direction had a significant effect on the magnitude and direction of the pointing error. Errors were significantly smaller in the seen-hand condition. For both conditions, though, a reference frame analysis showed that the errors arose at an eye- or hand-centered stage or both, but not at a body-centered stage. As a common reference frame is required to specify a movement vector, these results suggest that an eye-centered mechanism is involved in integrating target and hand position in programming reaching movements. We discuss how simple gain elements modulating the eye-centered target and hand-position signals can account for these results.

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Effects of a secondary task and working memory load on multisensory hand position

Seeing and Perceiving ◽

10.1163/187847612x646794 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 25 (0) ◽

pp. 58

Author(s):

Katrina Quinn ◽

Francia Acosta-Saltos ◽

Jan W. de Fockert ◽

Charles Spence ◽

Andrew J. Bremner

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Information ◽

Secondary Task ◽

Memory Load ◽

Memory Task ◽

Hand Position ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

The Individual ◽

Task Conditions ◽

Relative Weighting

Information about where our hands are arises from different sensory modalities; chiefly proprioception and vision. These inputs differ in variability from situation to situation (or task to task). According to the idea of ‘optimal integration’, the information provided by different sources is combined in proportion to their relative reliabilities, thus maximizing the reliability of the combined estimate. It is uncertain whether optimal multisensory integration of multisensory contributions to limb position requires executive resources. If so, then it should be possible to observe effects of secondary task performance and/or working memory load (WML) on the relative weighting of the senses under conditions of crossmodal sensory conflict. Alternatively, an integrated signal may be affected by upstream influences of WML or a secondary task on the reliabilities of the individual sensory inputs. We examine these possibilities in two experiments which examine effects of WML on reaching tasks in which bisensory visual-proprioceptive (Exp. 1), and unisensory proprioceptive (Exp. 2) cues to hand position are provided. WML increased visual capture under conditions of visual-proprioceptive conflict, regardless of the direction of visual-proprioceptive conflict, and the degree of load imposed. This indicates that task-switching (rather than WML load) leads to an increased reliance on visual information regardless of its task-specific reliability (Exp. 1). This could not be explained due to an increase in the variability of proprioception under secondary working memory task conditions (Exp. 2). We conclude that executive resources are involved in the relative weighting of visual and proprioceptive cues to hand position.

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