scholarly journals Auditory cortical alpha desynchronization prioritizes the representation of memory items during a retention period

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadine Kraft ◽  
Gianpaolo Demarchi ◽  
Nathan Weisz
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Distractor Condition ◽  
Visual Modality ◽  
Cortical Region ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Significant Deterioration ◽  
Retention Period ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Memory Probe

AbstractMaintaining information in working memory normally happens in dynamic environments, with a multitude of distracting events. This is particularly evident in the auditory system, for example, when trying to memorize a telephone number during ongoing background noise. How relevant to-be-memorized information is protected against the adverse influence of a temporally predictable distractor was the main goal of the present study. For this purpose we adapted a Sternberg task variant established in the visual modality, with either a strong or a weak distracting sound presented at a fixed time during the retention period. Our behavioral analysis confirmed a small, albeit significant deterioration of memory performance in the strong distractor condition. We used a time-generalized decoding approach applied to magnetoencephalography (MEG) data to investigate the extent of memory probe-related information prior to the anticipated distractor onset and found a relative decrease for the strong distractor condition. This effect was paralleled by a pre-distractor alpha power decrease in the left superior temporal gyrus (STG), a cortical region putatively holding memory content relevant information. Based on gating frameworks of alpha oscillations, these results could be interpreted as a failed inhibition of an anticipated strong (more salient) distractor. However, in a critical analysis we found that reduced alpha power in the left STG was associated with relatively increased memory probe-related information. Our results therefore support the view of alpha power reductions in relevant sensory (here auditory) cortical areas to be a mechanism by which to-be-remembered information is prioritized during working memory retention periods.

Does predictive cueing of encoding stimulus duration modulate alpha power and facilitate visual working memory performance in younger and older adults?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabrina Sghirripa ◽  
Lynton Graetz ◽  
Nigel Rogasch ◽  
John Semmler ◽  
Mitchell Goldsworthy
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Retention Period ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Oscillatory Power

Both selective attention and visual working memory (WM) performance are vulnerable to age related decline. Older adults perform worse on, and are less able to modulate oscillatory power in the alpha frequency range (8-12 Hz) than younger adults in WM tasks involving predictive cues about ‘where’ or ‘when’ a stimulus will be present. However, no study has investigated whether alpha power is modulated by cues predicting ‘how long’ an encoding duration will be. To test this, we recorded electroencephalography (EEG) while 24 younger (aged 18-33 years) and 23 older (aged 60-77 years) adults completed a modified delay match-to-sample task where participants were cued to the duration (either 0.1 s or 0.5 s) of an encoding stimulus consisting of 4 coloured squares. We found: (1) predictive cues increased WM capacity, but long encoding duration trials led to reduced WM capacity in both age groups, compared to short encoding duration trials; (2) no evidence for differences in preparatory alpha power between predictive and neutral cues for either short or long encoding durations, but preparatory alpha suppression was weaker in older adults; (3) retention period oscillatory power differed between short and long encoding duration trials, but these differences were no longer present when comparing the trial types from the onset of the encoding stimulus; and (4) oscillatory power in the preparatory and retention periods were not related to task performance. Our results suggest that preparatory alpha power is not modulated by predictive cues towards encoding duration during visual WM, however, reductions in alpha/beta oscillatory power during visual WM retention may be linked to the encoding stimulus, rather than a process specific to WM retention.

PERFORMANCE PREDICTION OF WORKING MEMORY RETENTION USING EVENT-RELATED POTENTIAL SIGNAL TOWARDS CHILDREN

2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (7-5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Siti Zubaidah Mohd Tumari ◽  
Rubita Sudirman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Stimuli ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
The Other ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Normal Children ◽  
Spectrum Density ◽  
Related Potentials

This study is to investigate the Event-Related Potentials (ERP) from the background of Electroencephalograph (EEG) signal for working memory retention by using visual stimuli. The proposed analysis of ERP signal is to predict the performance of working memory retention for various frequency bands such as gamma, beta, alpha, theta and delta. This study is intended to process the EEG data into ERP data and analyze the ERP signal based on power spectrum density. This method is applied to data of normal children with age between 7 to 12 years old. Result showed that alpha power band increases during working memory retention towards visual stimuli compared to the other frequency band. 9 years old has the highest amplitude alpha power compared to the other group of age. Therefore, the alpha power band at the prefrontal cortex will be used for the next analysis of the working memory retention.

scholarly journals Eye movements during working memory retention period influence performance

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 507-507
Author(s):  
Z. Jin ◽  
Y. Wang ◽  
L. Li
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Retention Period

scholarly journals A dual mechanism underlying retroactive shifts of auditory spatial attention: dissociating target- and distractor-related modulations of alpha lateralization

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura-Isabelle Klatt ◽  
Stephan Getzmann ◽  
Alexandra Begau ◽  
Daniel Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Irrelevant Information ◽  
Memory Representation ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Time Frequency ◽  
Cueing Task ◽  
Memory Probe

AbstractAttention can be allocated to mental representations to select information from working memory. To date, it remains ambiguous whether such retroactive shifts of attention involve the inhibition of irrelevant information or the prioritization of relevant information. Investigating asymmetries in posterior alpha-band oscillations during an auditory retroactive cueing task, we aimed at differentiating those mechanisms. Participants were cued to attend two out of three sounds in an upcoming sound array. Importantly, the resulting working memory representation contained one laterally and one centrally presented item. A centrally presented retro-cue then indicated the lateral, the central, or both items as further relevant for the task (comparing the cued item(s) to a memory probe). Time-frequency analysis revealed opposing patterns of alpha lateralization depending on target eccentricity: A contralateral decrease in alpha power in target lateral trials indicated the involvement of target prioritization. A contralateral increase in alpha power when the central item remained relevant (distractor lateral trials) suggested the de-prioritization of irrelevant information. No lateralization was observed when both items remained relevant, supporting the notion that auditory alpha lateralization is restricted to situations in which spatial information is task-relevant. Altogether, the data demonstrate that retroactive attentional deployment involves excitatory and inhibitory control mechanisms.

scholarly journals Pre-stimulus BOLD-network activation modulates EEG spectral activity during working memory retention

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mara Kottlow ◽  
Anthony Schlaepfer ◽  
Anja Baenninger ◽  
Lars Michels ◽  
Daniel Brandeis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Spectral Activity ◽  
Network Activation

scholarly journals Contralateral Delay Activity Tracks Fluctuations in Working Memory Performance

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (9) ◽  
pp. 1229-1240 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsten C. S. Adam ◽  
Matthew K. Robison ◽  
Edward K. Vogel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Individual Differences ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Contralateral Delay Activity ◽  
Trial Performance

Neural measures of working memory storage, such as the contralateral delay activity (CDA), are powerful tools in working memory research. CDA amplitude is sensitive to working memory load, reaches an asymptote at known behavioral limits, and predicts individual differences in capacity. An open question, however, is whether neural measures of load also track trial-by-trial fluctuations in performance. Here, we used a whole-report working memory task to test the relationship between CDA amplitude and working memory performance. If working memory failures are due to decision-based errors and retrieval failures, CDA amplitude would not differentiate good and poor performance trials when load is held constant. If failures arise during storage, then CDA amplitude should track both working memory load and trial-by-trial performance. As expected, CDA amplitude tracked load (Experiment 1), reaching an asymptote at three items. In Experiment 2, we tracked fluctuations in trial-by-trial performance. CDA amplitude was larger (more negative) for high-performance trials compared with low-performance trials, suggesting that fluctuations in performance were related to the successful storage of items. During working memory failures, participants oriented their attention to the correct side of the screen (lateralized P1) and maintained covert attention to the correct side during the delay period (lateralized alpha power suppression). Despite the preservation of attentional orienting, we found impairments consistent with an executive attention theory of individual differences in working memory capacity; fluctuations in executive control (indexed by pretrial frontal theta power) may be to blame for storage failures.

Guidance in the Interface

2009 ◽  
pp. 465-482
Author(s):  
Christof van Nimwegen ◽  
Hermina Tabachneck-Schijf ◽  
Herre van Oostendorp
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Transfer Task ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Initial Learning ◽  
Error Behavior

How can we design technology that suits human cognitive needs? In this chapter, we review research on the effects of externalizing information on the interface versus requiring people to internalize it. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of externalizing information. Further, we discuss some of our own research investigating how externalizing or not externalizing information in program interfaces influences problem-solving performance. In general, externalization provides information relevant to immediate task execution visibly or audibly in the interface. Thus, remembering certain task-related knowledge becomes unnecessary, which relieves working memory. Examples are visual feedback aids such as “graying out” nonapplicable menu items. On the contrary, when certain needed task-related information is not externalized on the interface, it needs to be internalized, stored in working memory and long-term memory. In many task situations, having the user acquire more knowledge of the structure of the task or its underlying rules is desirable. We examined the hypothesis that while externalization will yield better performance during initial learning, internalization will yield a better performance later. We furthermore expected internalization to result in better knowledge, and expected it to provoke less trial-and-error behavior. We conducted an experiment where we compared an interface with certain information externalized versus not externalizing it, and measured performance and knowledge. In a second session 8 months later, we investigated what was left of the participants’ knowledge and skills, and presented them with a transfer task. The results showed that requiring internalization can yield advantages over having all information immediately at hand. This shows that using cognitive findings to enhance the effectiveness of software (especially software with specific purposes) can make a valuable contribution to the field of human-computer interaction.

scholarly journals Individual differences in working memory capacity moderate effects of post-learning activity on memory consolidation over the long term

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Markus Martini ◽  
Robert Marhenke ◽  
Caroline Martini ◽  
Sonja Rossi ◽  
Pierre Sachse
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Consolidation ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Word List ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Learning Activity ◽  
Experimental Session ◽  
Distractor Task ◽  
Memory Retention ◽  
Eyes Closed

Abstract Similar to sleeping after learning, a brief period of wakeful resting after encoding new information supports memory retention in contrast to task-related cognition. Recent evidence suggests that working memory capacity (WMC) is related to sleep-dependent declarative memory consolidation. We tested whether WMC moderates the effect of a brief period of wakeful resting compared to performing a distractor task subsequent to encoding a word list. Participants encoded and immediately recalled a word list followed by either an 8 min wakeful resting period (eyes closed, relaxed) or by performing an adapted version of the d2 test of attention for 8 min. At the end of the experimental session (after 12–24 min) and again, after 7 days, participants were required to complete a surprise free recall test of both word lists. Our results show that interindividual differences in WMC are a central moderating factor for the effect of post-learning activity on memory retention. The difference in word retention between a brief period of wakeful resting versus performing a selective attention task subsequent to encoding increased in higher WMC individuals over a retention interval of 12–24 min, as well as over 7 days. This effect was reversed in lower WMC individuals. Our results extend findings showing that WMC seems not only to moderate sleep-related but also wakeful resting-related memory consolidation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document