Long-term pitch memory for music recordings is related to auditory working memory precision

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 879-891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen C Van Hedger ◽  
Shannon LM Heald ◽  
Howard C Nusbaum
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Musical Note ◽  
Pitch Information ◽  
Memory Precision ◽  
Music Recordings

Most individuals have reliable long-term memories for the pitch of familiar music recordings. This pitch memory (1) appears to be normally distributed in the population, (2) does not depend on explicit musical training and (3) only seems to be weakly related to differences in listening frequency estimates. The present experiment was designed to assess whether individual differences in auditory working memory could explain variance in long-term pitch memory for music recordings. In Experiment 1, participants first completed a musical note adjustment task that has been previously used to assess working memory of musical pitch. Afterward, participants were asked to judge the pitch of well-known music recordings, which either had or had not been shifted in pitch. We found that performance on the pitch working memory task was significantly related to performance in the pitch memory task using well-known recordings, even when controlling for overall musical experience and familiarity with each recording. In Experiment 2, we replicated these findings in a separate group of participants while additionally controlling for fluid intelligence and non-pitch-based components of auditory working memory. In Experiment 3, we demonstrated that participants could not accurately judge the pitch of unfamiliar recordings, suggesting that our method of pitch shifting did not result in unwanted acoustic cues that could have aided participants in Experiments 1 and 2. These results, taken together, suggest that the ability to maintain pitch information in working memory might lead to more accurate long-term pitch memory.

scholarly journals Neonatal Desflurane Exposure Induces More Robust Neuroapoptosis than Do Isoflurane and Sevoflurane and Impairs Working Memory

2011 ◽  
Vol 115 (5) ◽  
pp. 979-991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitsuyoshi Kodama ◽  
Yasushi Satoh ◽  
Yukiko Otsubo ◽  
Yoshiyuki Araki ◽  
Ryuji Yonamine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Open Field ◽  
Elevated Plus Maze ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Adenosine Diphosphate ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Neonatal Exposure ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Plus Maze

Background In animal models, neonatal exposure to volatile anesthetics induces neuroapoptosis, leading to memory deficits in adulthood. However, effects of neonatal exposure to desflurane are largely unknown. Methods Six-day-old C57BL/6 mice were exposed to equivalent doses of desflurane, sevoflurane, or isoflurane for 3 or 6 h. Minimum alveolar concentration was determined by the tail-clamp method as a function of anesthesia duration. Apoptosis was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining for activated caspase-3, and by TUNEL. Western blot analysis for cleaved poly-(adenosine diphosphate-ribose) polymerase was performed to examine apoptosis comparatively. The open-field, elevated plus-maze, Y-maze, and fear conditioning tests were performed to evaluate general activity, anxiety-related behavior, working memory, and long-term memory, respectively. Results Minimum alveolar concentrations at 1 h were determined to be 11.5% for desflurane, 3.8% for sevoflurane, and 2.7% for isoflurane in 6-day-old mice. Neonatal exposure to desflurane (8%) induced neuroapoptosis with an anatomic pattern similar to that of sevoflurane or isoflurane; however, desflurane induced significantly greater levels of neuroapoptosis than almost equivalent doses of sevoflurane (3%) or isoflurane (2%). In adulthood, mice treated with these anesthetics had impaired long-term memory, whereas no significant anomalies were detected in the open-field and the elevated plus-maze tests. Although performance in a working memory task was normal in mice exposed neonatally to sevoflurane or isoflurane, mice exposed to desflurane had significantly impaired working memory. Conclusions In an animal model, neonatal desflurane exposure induced more neuroapoptosis than did sevoflurane or isoflurane and impaired working memory, suggesting that desflurane is more neurotoxic than sevoflurane or isoflurane.

Benefits of training working memory in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: specific and transfer effects

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 617-626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Carretti ◽  
Erika Borella ◽  
Silvia Fostinelli ◽  
Michela Zavagnin
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Transfer Effects ◽  
Memory Problems

ABSTRACTBackground:A growing number of studies are attempting to understand how effective cognitive interventions may be for patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), particularly in relation to their memory problems.Methods:The present study aimed to explore the benefits of a working memory (WM) training program in aMCI patients. Patients (N= 20) were randomly assigned to two training programs: the experimental group practiced with a verbal WM task, while the active control group conducted educational activities on memory.Results:Results showed that the aMCI patients completing the WM training obtained specific gains in the task trained with some transfer effects on other WM measures (visuospatial WM) and on processes involved in or related to WM, e.g. fluid intelligence (the Cattell test) and long-term memory. This was not the case for the aMCI control group, who experienced only a very limited improvement.Conclusion:This pilot study suggests that WM training could be a valuable method for improving cognitive performance in aMCI patients, possibly delaying the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

scholarly journals Attentional modulation of neural phase is enhanced by short-term training and linked to musical experience

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aeron Laffere ◽  
Fred Dick ◽  
Adam Tierney
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Musical Experience ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Attention Task ◽  
Auditory Stream ◽  
Reliable Marker

AbstractHow does the brain follow a sound that is mixed with others in a noisy environment? A possible strategy is to allocate attention to task-relevant time intervals while suppressing irrelevant intervals - a strategy that could be implemented by aligning neural modulations with critical moments in time. Here we tested whether selective attention to non-verbal sound streams is linked to shifts in the timing of attentional modulations of EEG activity, and investigated whether this neural mechanism can be enhanced by short-term training and musical experience. Participants performed a memory task on a target auditory stream presented at 4 Hz while ignoring a distractor auditory stream also presented at 4 Hz, but with a 180-degree shift in phase. The two attention conditions were linked to a roughly 180-degree shift in phase in the EEG signal at 4 Hz. Moreover, there was a strong relationship between performance on the 1-back task and the timing of the EEG modulation with respect to the attended band. EEG modulation timing was also enhanced after several days of training on the selective attention task and enhanced in experienced musicians. These results support the hypothesis that modulation of neural timing facilitates attention to particular moments in time and indicate that phase timing is a robust and reliable marker of individual differences in auditory attention. Moreover, these results suggest that nonverbal selective attention can be enhanced in the short term by only a few hours of practice and in the long term by years of musical training.

scholarly journals Canonical goal-selective representations are absent from prefrontal cortex in a spatial working memory task requiring behavioral flexibility

eLife ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Böhm ◽  
Albert K Lee
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Behavioral Flexibility ◽  
Task Structure ◽  
Specific Memory ◽  
Multiple Routes ◽  
Task Features

The prefrontal cortex (PFC)’s functions are thought to include working memory, as its activity can reflect information that must be temporarily maintained to realize the current goal. We designed a flexible spatial working memory task that required rats to navigate – after distractions and a delay – to multiple possible goal locations from different starting points and via multiple routes. This made the current goal location the key variable to remember, instead of a particular direction or route to the goal. However, across a broad population of PFC neurons, we found no evidence of current-goal-specific memory in any previously reported form – that is differences in the rate, sequence, phase, or covariance of firing. This suggests that such patterns do not hold working memory in the PFC when information must be employed flexibly. Instead, the PFC grouped locations representing behaviorally equivalent task features together, consistent with a role in encoding long-term knowledge of task structure.

scholarly journals Is Long-Term Memory Used in a Visuo-Spatial Change-Detection Paradigm?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Goecke ◽  
Klaus Oberauer
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Change Detection ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Repetition Effect ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Memory Representation ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Hebb Repetition Effect

In tests of working memory with verbal or spatial materials repeating the same memory sets across trials leads to improved memory performance. This well-established “Hebb repetition effect” could not be shown for visual materials. This absence of the Hebb effect can be explained in two ways: Either persons fail to acquire a long-term memory representation of the repeated memory sets, or they acquire such long-term memory representations, but fail to use them during the working memory task. In two experiments, (N1 = 18 and N2 = 30), we aimed to decide between these two possibilities by manipulating the long-term memory knowledge of some of the memory sets used in a change-detection task. Before the change-detection test, participants learned three arrays of colors to criterion. The subsequent change-detection test contained both previously learned and new color arrays. Change detection performance was better on previously learned compared to new arrays, showing that long-term memory is used in change detection.

Effects of Pronounceability and Articulatory Suppression on Phonological Learning

1995 ◽  
Vol 81 (2) ◽  
pp. 651-657 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoru Saito
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Articulatory Suppression ◽  
Recall Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Phonological Representation ◽  
Phonological Working Memory ◽  
Suppression Condition ◽  
Phonological Learning

The effects of pronounceability and articulatory suppression on learning for the phonology of new vocabulary were studied, The 10 subjects remembered lists of either Japanese words or nonwords. All lists had 20 items; 10 of these were easy to pronounce and the rest were difficult to pronounce. The lists had to be remembered under two conditions, a silent control condition in which only the memory task was required and an articulatory suppression condition in which subjects were required to articulate continuously “1, 2, 3.” Analysis showed the advantage of recall performance for the easy items over that for the difficult ones in the control condition with the nonword lists. This effect of pronounceability disappeared under the condition of the articulatory suppression. These results were discussed in terms of phonological working memory and long-term phonological representation.

scholarly journals Interacting Memory Systems—Does EEG Alpha Activity Respond to Semantic Long-Term Memory Access in a Working Memory Task?

Biology ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Berger ◽  
Serif Omer ◽  
Tamas Minarik ◽  
Annette Sterr ◽  
Paul Sauseng
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Alpha Activity ◽  
Memory Access ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Eeg Alpha ◽  
Eeg Alpha Activity

Prefrontal Cortex Activity Associated with Source Monitoring in a Working Memory Task

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 921-934 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen J. Mitchell ◽  
Marcia K. Johnson ◽  
Carol L. Raye ◽  
Erich J. Greene
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Source Monitoring ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Source Information ◽  
Related Activity ◽  
Specific Source ◽  
Evaluative Processes

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we investigated prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity during remembering specific source information (format, location judgments) versus remembering that could be based on undifferentiated information, such as familiarity (old/new recognition [ON], recency judgments). A working memory (WM) paradigm with an immediate test yielded greater activation in the lateral PFC for format and location source memory (SM) tasks than ON recognition; this SM-related activity was left lateralized. The same regions of PFC were recruited in Experiment 2 when information was tested immediately and after a filled delay. Substituting recency for location judgments (Experiment 3) resulted in an overall shift in task context that produced greater right PFC activity associated with ON and recency tasks compared to the format task, in addition to left SM-related activity. These data extend to WM previous findings from long-term memory (LTM) indicating that the left and right PFC may be differentially involved in memory attributions depending on the specificity of information evaluated. The findings also provide evidence for the continuity of evaluative processes recruited in WM and LTM.

Interference Control in Working Memory Is Associated with Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex Volume

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (10) ◽  
pp. 1491-1505 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Samrani ◽  
Lars Bäckman ◽  
Jonas Persson
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Longitudinal Change ◽  
Interference Control ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Cognitive Domains ◽  
And Performance

Goal-irrelevant information may interfere with ongoing task activities if not controlled properly. Evidence suggests that the ability to control interference is connected mainly to the prefrontal cortex (pFC). However, it remains unclear whether gray matter (GM) volume in prefrontal regions influences individual differences in interference control (IC) and if these relationships are affected by aging. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal estimates over a 4- to 5-year period, we examined the relationship between relative IC scores, obtained from a 2-back working memory task, GM volumes, and performance in different cognitive domains. By identifying individuals with either no or high levels of interference, we demonstrated that participants with superior IC had larger volume of the ventrolateral pFC, regardless of participant demographics. The same pattern was observed both at baseline and follow-up. Cross-sectional estimates further showed that interference increased as a function of age, but interference did not change between baseline and follow-up. Similarly, across-sample associations between IC and pFC volume were found in the cross-sectional data, along with no longitudinal change–change relationships. Moreover, relative IC scores could be linked to composite scores of fluid intelligence, indicating that control of interference may relate to performance in expected cognitive domains. These results provide new evidence that a relative IC score can be related to volume of specific and relevant regions within pFC and that this relationship is not modulated by age. This supports a view that the GM volume in these regions plays a role in resisting interference during a working memory task.

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