scholarly journals Theta Oscillations in Human Cortex During a Working-Memory Task: Evidence for Local Generators

2006 ◽  
Vol 95 (3) ◽  
pp. 1630-1638 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Raghavachari ◽  
J. E. Lisman ◽  
M. Tully ◽  
J. R. Madsen ◽  
E. B. Bromfield ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Theta Oscillations ◽  
Resolution Method ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Human Cortex ◽  
Coordinate Regulation

Cortical theta appears important in sensory processing and memory. Intracanial electrode recordings provide a high spatial resolution method for studying such oscillations during cognitive tasks. Recent work revealed sites at which oscillations in the theta range (4–12 Hz) could be gated by a working-memory task: theta power was increased at task onset and continued until task offset. Using a large data set that has now been collected (10 participants/619 recording sites), we have sufficient sampling to determine how these gated sites are distributed in the cortex and how they are synchronized. A substantial fraction of sites in occipital/parietal (45/157) and temporal (23/280) cortices were gated by the task. Surprisingly, this aspect of working-memory function was virtually absent in frontal cortex (2/182). Coherence measures were used to analyze the synchronization of oscillations. We suspected that because of their coordinate regulation by the working-memory task, gated sites would have synchronized theta oscillations. We found that, whereas nearby gated sites (<20 mm) were often but not always coherent, distant gated sites were almost never coherent. Our results imply that there are local mechanisms for the generation of cortical theta.

scholarly journals Auditory and Visual Working Memory Are Differentially Related to Carotenoid Status in Preadolescent Children

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_2) ◽  
pp. 98-98
Author(s):  
Corinne Cannavale ◽  
Caitlyn Edwards ◽  
Ruyu Liu ◽  
Samantha Iwinski ◽  
Anne Walk ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Set Size ◽  
Preadolescent Children ◽  
Central Illinois ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Objectives Carotenoids are plant pigments known to deposit in neural tissues including the hippocampus, a brain substrate that supports several memory forms. However, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding carotenoid status and working memory function in children. Accordingly, this study aimed to understand the relationship between macular and skin carotenoids to visual and auditory working memory (WM) function. Methods Seventy preadolescent children (7–12 years, 32 males) were recruited from the East-Central Illinois area. Auditory working memory was assessed using the story recall subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson IV Test of Cognitive Abilities. A subsample (N = 61, 27 males) completed a visual working memory task and reaction time was quantified to determine speed of memory processing at set sizes of 1 to 4 items. Macular pigment optical density (MPOD) was assessed using customized heterochromatic flicker photometry. Skin carotenoids were assessed using reflection spectroscopy (Veggie Meter). Hierarchical linear regressions were conducted to assess the relationship between carotenoid status and WM function, while controlling for age, sex, income, and whole-body % fat (DXA). Results Auditory WM was positively associated with skin carotenoids (b = 0.263, P = 0.039) but not MPOD (b = −0.044, P = 0.380). In contrast, MPOD was significantly associated with faster visual WM speed at set size 3 (b = −0.253, P = 0.039) and trending at set sizes of 1 (b = −0.225, P = 0.051), 2 (b = −0.171, P = 0.121), and 4 (b = −0.230, P = 0.055). Interestingly, skin carotenoids were not related to visual WM performance at either set size (all P’s &gt; 0.300). Conclusions These results indicate that auditory and visual WM may be differentially related to carotenoids. While skin carotenoids encompass all carotenoids consumed in diet, lutein and zeaxanthin are the only carotenoids which deposit in the macula. Given that MPOD was only related to visual WM, this suggests lutein plays a larger role in these neural functions relative to auditory WM. Interestingly, MPOD's relationship with visual WM increased in strength with the more difficult trial type (i.e., increasing set size), indicating MPOD is related at higher levels of WM capacity. Funding Sources This study was funded by the Egg Nutrition Center.

Theta power and theta-gamma coupling support spatial memory retrieval

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Umesh Vivekananda ◽  
Daniel Bush ◽  
James A Bisby ◽  
Sallie Baxendale ◽  
Roman Rodionov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Memory ◽  
Task Performance ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Theta Oscillations ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Human Epilepsy ◽  
Phase Amplitude ◽  
Hippocampal Theta

AbstractHippocampal theta oscillations have been implicated in spatial memory function in both rodents and humans. What is less clear is how hippocampal theta interacts with higher frequency oscillations during spatial memory function, and how this relates to subsequent behaviour. Here we asked ten human epilepsy patients undergoing intracranial EEG recording to perform a desk-top virtual reality spatial memory task, and found that increased theta power in two discrete bands (‘low’ 2-5Hz and ‘high’ 6-9Hz) during cued retrieval was associated with improved task performance. Similarly, increased coupling between ‘low’ theta phase and gamma amplitude during the same period was associated with improved task performance. These results support a role of theta oscillations and theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling in human spatial memory function.

Concurrent working memory task decreases the Stroop interference effect as indexed by the decreased theta oscillations

Neuroscience ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 262 ◽  
pp. 92-106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Zhao ◽  
D. Tang ◽  
L. Hu ◽  
L. Zhang ◽  
G. Hitchman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Interference Effect ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Stroop Interference ◽  
Theta Oscillations

scholarly journals No Spearman’s Law of Diminishing Returns for the working memory and intelligence relationship

2016 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-80
Author(s):  
Bartłomiej Kroczek ◽  
Michał Ociepka ◽  
Adam Chuderski
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Large Data ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
High Ability ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Crystallized Intelligence ◽  
Diminishing Returns

AbstractSpearman’s Law of Diminishing Returns (SLODR) holds that correlation between general (g)/fluid (Gf) intelligence factor and other cognitive abilities weakens with increasing ability level. Thus, cognitive processing in low ability people is most strongly saturated by g/Gf, whereas processing in high ability people depends less on g/Gf. Numerous studies demonstrated that low g is more strongly correlated with crystallized intelligence/creativity/processing speed than is high g, however no study tested an analogous effect in the case of working memory (WM). Our aim was to investigate SLODR for the relationship between Gf and WM capacity, using a large data set from our own previous studies. We tested alternative regression models separately for three types of WM tasks that tapped short-term memory storage, attention control, and relational integration, respectively. No significant SLODR effect was found for any of these tasks. Each task shared with Gf virtually the same amount of variance in the case of low- and high-ability people. This result suggests that Gf and WM rely on one and the same (neuro)cognitive mechanism.

scholarly journals Slow manifolds within network dynamics encode working memory efficiently and robustly

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (9) ◽  
pp. e1009366
Author(s):  
Elham Ghazizadeh ◽  
ShiNung Ching
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Neural Circuits ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Network State ◽  
Dynamical Systems Analysis ◽  
Activation Profile ◽  
Robust To Noise ◽  
Over Time

Working memory is a cognitive function involving the storage and manipulation of latent information over brief intervals of time, thus making it crucial for context-dependent computation. Here, we use a top-down modeling approach to examine network-level mechanisms of working memory, an enigmatic issue and central topic of study in neuroscience. We optimize thousands of recurrent rate-based neural networks on a working memory task and then perform dynamical systems analysis on the ensuing optimized networks, wherein we find that four distinct dynamical mechanisms can emerge. In particular, we show the prevalence of a mechanism in which memories are encoded along slow stable manifolds in the network state space, leading to a phasic neuronal activation profile during memory periods. In contrast to mechanisms in which memories are directly encoded at stable attractors, these networks naturally forget stimuli over time. Despite this seeming functional disadvantage, they are more efficient in terms of how they leverage their attractor landscape and paradoxically, are considerably more robust to noise. Our results provide new hypotheses regarding how working memory function may be encoded within the dynamics of neural circuits.

Delayed recognition memory span in HIV-1 infection

1995 ◽  
Vol 1 (6) ◽  
pp. 575-580 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen M. Martin ◽  
David L. Pitrak ◽  
Kenneth J. Pursell ◽  
Kathleen M. Mullane ◽  
Richard M. Novak
Keyword(s):  
Substance Abuse ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Substance Abusers ◽  
Memory Span ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Basal Ganglia Disease ◽  
History Of ◽  
Delayed Recognition ◽  
Hiv Seropositive

AbstractWe administered a spatial version of the Delayed Recognition Span Test (DRST), a working memory task performed abnormally by patients with basal ganglia disease, to a group of 96 HIV-seropositive and 83 seronegative subjects with a high prevalence of substance abuse. For comparison purposes, we also administered the Symbol-Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) and the Trail Making Test (TMT), measures which detect HIV-related mental slowing efficiently in gay men but are nonspecifically impaired in subjects with a history of substance abuse. As predicted, scores on the TMT and the SDMT did not discriminate the groups, but HIV-seropositive subjects had significantly shorter spatial spans (p < .007) and DRST total scores (p < .005). These effects could not be attributed to differences in age, education, estimated intelligence, or psychological distress, because the groups were well matched on these variables. The DRST is a promising measure of HIV-related cognitive dysfunction in substance abusers, who are often nonspecifically impaired on psychomotor tasks. These preliminary data also indicate that working memory function should be studied further in HIV-seropositive subjects. (JINS, 1995, 1, 575–580.)

scholarly journals Gating of Human Theta Oscillations by a Working Memory Task

2001 ◽  
Vol 21 (9) ◽  
pp. 3175-3183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sridhar Raghavachari ◽  
Michael J. Kahana ◽  
Daniel S. Rizzuto ◽  
Jeremy B. Caplan ◽  
Matthew P. Kirschen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Theta Oscillations

scholarly journals Sex Effects on Development of Brain Structure and Executive Functions: Greater Variance than Mean Effects

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 730-753 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara M. Wierenga ◽  
Marieke G. N. Bos ◽  
Fabienne van Rossenberg ◽  
Eveline A. Crone
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Sex Differences ◽  
Reading Comprehension ◽  
Executive Functions ◽  
Brain Development ◽  
Brain Structure ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Sex Effects ◽  
Brain Age

Although male brains have consistently reported to be 8–10% larger than female brains, it remains not well understood whether there are differences between sexes (average or variance) in developmental trajectories. Furthermore, if sex differences in average brain growth or variance are observed, it is unknown whether these sex differences have behavioral relevance. The present longitudinal study aimed to unravel sex effects in cortical brain structure, development, and variance, in relation to the development of educationally relevant cognitive domains and executive functions (EFs). This was assessed with three experimental tasks including working memory, reading comprehension, and fluency. In addition, real-life aspects of EF were assessed with self- and parent-reported Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function scores. The full data set included 271 participants (54% female) aged between 8 and 29 years of which three waves were collected at 2-year intervals, resulting in 680 T1-weighted MRI scans and behavioral measures. Analyses of average trajectories confirmed general age-related patterns of brain development but did not support the hypothesis of sex differences in brain development trajectories, except for left banks STS where boys had a steeper decline in surface area than girls. Also, our brain age prediction model (including 270 brain measures) did not indicate delayed maturation in boys compared with girls. Interestingly, support was found for greater variance in male brains than female brains in both structure and development, consistent with prior cross-sectional studies. Behaviorally, boys performed on average better on a working memory task with a spatial aspect and girls performed better on a reading comprehension task, but there was no relation between brain development and cognitive performance, neither for average brain measures, brain age, or variance measures. Taken together, we confirmed the hypothesis of greater males within-group variance in brain structures compared with females, but these were not related to EF. The sex differences observed in EF were not related to brain development, possibly suggesting that these are related to experiences and strategies rather than biological development.

scholarly journals Network Structure During Encoding Predicts Working Memory Performance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anirudh Wodeyar ◽  
Ramesh Srinivasan
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Graphical Model ◽  
Structural Characteristics ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Functional Clustering ◽  
Network Properties

ABSTRACTWorking memory operates through networks that integrate distributed modular brain activity. We characterize the structure of networks in different electroencephalographic frequency bands while individuals perform a working memory task. The objective was to identify network properties that support working memory function during the encoding, maintenance, and retrieval of memory. In each EEG frequency band, we estimated a complex-valued Gaussian graphical model to characterize the structure of brain networks using measures from graph theory. Critically, the structural characteristics of brain networks that facilitate performance are all established during encoding, suggesting that they reflect the effect of attention on the quality of the representation in working memory. Segregation of networks in the alpha and beta bands during encoding increased with accuracy. In the theta band, greater integration of functional clusters involving the temporal lobe with other cortical areas predicted faster response time, starting in the encoding interval and persisting throughout the task, indicating that functional clustering facilitates rapid memory manipulation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document