Neurophysiological Verbal Working Memory Patterns in Children: Searching for a Benchmark of Modality Differences in Audio/Video Stimuli Processing

Exploration of specific brain areas involved in verbal working memory (VWM) is a powerful but not widely used tool for the study of different sensory modalities, especially in children. In this study, for the first time, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate neurophysiological similarities and differences in response to the same verbal stimuli, expressed in the auditory and visual modality during the n-back task with varying memory load in children. Since VWM plays an important role in learning ability, we wanted to investigate whether children elaborated the verbal input from auditory and visual stimuli through the same neural patterns and if performance varies depending on the sensory modality. Performance in terms of reaction times was better in visual than auditory modality ( p = 0.008) and worse as memory load increased regardless of the modality ( p < 0.001). EEG activation was proportionally influenced by task level and was evidenced in theta band over the prefrontal cortex ( p = 0.021), along the midline ( p = 0.003), and on the left hemisphere ( p = 0.003). Differences in the effects of the two modalities were seen only in gamma band in the parietal cortices ( p = 0.009). The values of a brainwave-based engagement index, innovatively used here to test children in a dual-modality VWM paradigm, varied depending on n-back task level ( p = 0.001) and negatively correlated ( p = 0.002) with performance, suggesting its computational effectiveness in detecting changes in mental state during memory tasks involving children. Overall, our findings suggest that auditory and visual VWM involved the same brain cortical areas (frontal, parietal, occipital, and midline) and that the significant differences in cortical activation in theta band were more related to memory load than sensory modality, suggesting that VWM function in the child’s brain involves a cross-modal processing pattern.

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Cognitive entrainment to isochronous rhythms is independent of both sensory modality and top-down attention

Psicológica Journal ◽

10.2478/psicolj-2019-0005 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 40 (2) ◽

pp. 62-84

Author(s):

Diana Cutanda ◽

Daniel Sanabria ◽

Ángel Correa

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Secondary Task ◽

Cognitive Process ◽

Sensory Modality ◽

Reaction Times ◽

Auditory Stimuli ◽

Visual Modality ◽

Auditory Modality ◽

Top Down ◽

Back Task

AbstractThe anisochrony of a stimulus sequence was manipulated parametrically to investigate whether rhythmic entrainment is stronger in the auditory modality than in the visual modality (Experiment 1), and whether it relies on top-down attention (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, participants had to respond as quickly as possible to a target presented after a sequence of either visual or auditory stimuli. The anisochrony of this sequence was manipulated parametrically, rather than in an all or none fashion; that is, it could range from smaller to larger deviations of the isochrony (0, 10, 20, 50, 100, 150 and 200 ms). We compared rhythmic entrainment patterns for auditory and visual modalities. Results showed a peak of entrainment for both isochrony and deviations of isochrony up to 50 ms (i.e., participants were equally fast both after the isochronous sequences and after 10, 20 and 50 ms deviations), suggesting that anisochronous sequences can also produce entrainment. Beyond this entrainment window, the reaction times became progressively slower. Surprisingly, no differences were found between the entrainment patterns for auditory and visual rhythms. In Experiment 2, we used a dual-task methodology by adding a working memory n-back task to the procedure of Experiment 1. Results did not show interference of the secondary task in either auditory or visual modalities, with participants showing the same entrainment pattern as in Experiment 1. These results suggest that rhythmic entrainment constitutes a cognitive process that occurs by default (automatically), regardless of the modality in which the stimuli are presented, and independent of top-down attention, to generate behavioural benefits.

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Concurrent verbal working memory load constrains cross-linguistic translation activation: A visual world eye-tracking study on Hindi–English bilinguals

Bilingualism Language and Cognition ◽

10.1017/s1366728920000024 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 1-30

Author(s):

Seema Prasad ◽

Ramesh Kumar Mishra

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Memory Load ◽

Critical Role ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Spoken Word ◽

Cognitive Resources ◽

Visual World ◽

Sequence Recognition ◽

Word Onset ◽

Study Participants

Abstract Does a concurrent verbal working memory (WM) load constrain cross-linguistic activation? In a visual world study, participants listened to Hindi (L1) or English (L2) spoken words and viewed a display containing the phonological cohort of the translation equivalent (TE cohort) of the spoken word and 3 distractors. Experiment 1 was administered without a load. Participants then maintained two or four letters (Experiment 2) or two, six or eight letters (Experiment 3) in WM and were tested on backward sequence recognition after the visual world display. Greater looks towards TE cohorts were observed in both the language directions in Experiment 1. With a load, TE cohort activation was inhibited in the L2 – L1 direction and observed only in the early stages after word onset in the L1 – L2 direction suggesting a critical role of language direction. These results indicate that cross-linguistic activation as seen through eye movements depends on cognitive resources such as WM.

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Working Memory and the Suppression of Reflexive Saccades

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/089892902317205357 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 95-103 ◽

Cited By ~ 80

Author(s):

Jason P. Mitchell ◽

C. Neil Macrae ◽

Iain D. Gilchrist

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Memory Load ◽

Critical Role ◽

Memory Task ◽

Behavioral Responses ◽

Error Rates ◽

Antisaccade Task ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

Reflexive Saccades ◽

Back Task

Conscious behavioral intentions can frequently fail under conditions of attentional depletion. In attempting to trace the cognitive origin of this effect, we hypothesized that failures of action control—specifically, oculomotor movement—can result from the imposition of fronto-executive load. To evaluate this prediction, participants performed an antisaccade task while simultaneously completing a working-memory task that is known to make variable demands on prefrontal processes (n-back task, see Jonides et al., 1997). The results of two experiments are reported. As expected, antisaccade error rates were increased in accordance with the fronto-executive demands of the n-back task (Experiment 1). In addition, the debilitating effects of working-memory load were restricted to the inhibitory component of the antisaccade task (Experiment 2). These findings corroborate the view that working memory operations play a critical role in the suppression of prepotent behavioral responses.

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Brain correlates of action word memory

10.1101/412676 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Zubaida Shebani ◽

Francesca Carota ◽

Olaf Hauk ◽

James B. Rowe ◽

Lawrence W. Barsalou ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Motor Cortex ◽

Verbal Memory ◽

Memory Load ◽

Memory Performance ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

The Body ◽

Action Perception ◽

Brain Correlates ◽

Posterior Parietal

AbstractWhen understanding language semantically related to actions, the motor cortex is active and may be sensitive to semantic information, for example about the body-part-relationship of displayed action-related words. Conversely, movements of the hands or feet can impair memory performance for arm- and leg-related action words respectively, suggesting that the role of motor systems extends to verbal working memory. Here, we studied brain correlates of verbal memory load for action-related words using event-related fMRI during the encoding and memory maintenance of word lists. Seventeen participants saw either four identical or four different words from the same category, semantically related to actions typically performed either with the arms or with the legs. After a variable delay of 4-14 seconds, they performed a nonmatching-to-sample task. Hemodynamic activity related to the information load of words at presentation was most prominent in left temporo-occipital and bilateral posterior-parietal areas. In contrast, larger demand on verbal memory maintenance produced greater activation in left premotor and supplementary motor cortex, along with posterior-parietal areas, indicating that verbal memory circuits for action-related words include the cortical action system. Somatotopic memory load effects of arm- and leg-related words were not present at the typical precentral loci where earlier studies had found such word-category differences in reading tasks, although traces of somatotopic semantic mappings were observed at more anterior cortical regions. These results support a neurocomputational model of distributed action-perception circuits (APCs), according to which language understanding is manifest as full ignition of APCs, whereas working memory is realized as reverberant activity gradually receding to multimodal prefrontal and lateral temporal areas.

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Assessing the effect of verbal working memory load on visuo-spatial exogenous orienting

Neuroscience Letters ◽

10.1016/j.neulet.2006.11.037 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 413 (2) ◽

pp. 105-109 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Valerio Santangelo ◽

Charles Spence

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Memory Load ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Exogenous Orienting ◽

Working Memory Load

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Verbal Working Memory Load Affects Regional Brain Activation as Measured by PET

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience ◽

10.1162/jocn.1997.9.4.462 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 462-475 ◽

Cited By ~ 414

Author(s):

John Jonides ◽

Eric H. Schumacher ◽

Edward E. Smith ◽

Erick J. Lauber ◽

Edward Awh ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Task Difficulty ◽

Memory Load ◽

Brain Activation ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Behavioral Performance ◽

Executive Processes ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

The One ◽

Reliable Increase

We report an experiment that assesses the effect of variations in memory load on brain activations that mediate verbal working memory. The paradigm that forms the basis of this experiment is the “n-back” task in which subjects must decide for each letter in a series whether it matches the one presented n items back in the series. This task is of interest because it recruits processes involved in both the storage and manipulation of information in working memory. Variations in task difficulty were accomplished by varying the value of n. As n increased, subjects showed poorer behavioral performance as well as monotonically increasing magnitudes of brain activation in a large number of sites that together have been identified with verbal working-memory processes. By contrast, there was no reliable increase in activation in sites that are unrelated to working memory. These results validate the use of parametric manipulation of task variables in neuroimaging research, and they converge with the subtraction paradigm used most often in neuroimaging. In addition, the data support a model of working memory that includes both storage and executive processes that recruit a network of brain areas, all of which are involved in task performance.

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Preprint: The impact of cognitive control, incentives, and working memory load on the P3 responses of externalizing prisoners

10.31234/osf.io/n64sz ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Arielle Baskin–Sommers ◽

Elizabeth A. Krusemark ◽

John Joseph Curtin ◽

Christopher Lee ◽

Aleice Vujnovich ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Cognitive Control ◽

Memory Load ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

Male Offenders ◽

P3 Amplitude ◽

The Impact ◽

Process Level ◽

Global Reduction ◽

Back Task

The P3 amplitude reduction is one of the most common correlates of externalizing. However, few studies have used experimental manipulations designed to challenge different cognitive functions in order to clarify the processes that impact this reduction. To examine factors moderating P3 amplitude in trait externalizing, we administered an n-back task that manipulated cognitive control demands, working memory load, and incentives to a sample of male offenders. Offenders with high trait externalizing scores did not display a global reduction in P3 amplitude. Rather, the negative association between trait externalizing and P3 amplitude was specific to trials involving inhibition of a dominant response during infrequent stimuli, in the context of low working memory load, and incentives for performance. In addition, we discuss the potential implications of these findings for externalizing-related psychopathologies. The results complement and expand previous work on the process-level dysfunction contributing to externalizing-related deficits in P3.

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Effect of verbal working memory load during the oculomotor activity in visual search

Experimental Psychology (Russia) ◽

10.17759/exppsy.2015080203 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 8 (2) ◽

pp. 21-35 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

B.B. Velichkovsky ◽

A.I. Izmalkova

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Search ◽

Spatial Working Memory ◽

Memory Load ◽

Mutual Influence ◽

Verbal Working Memory ◽

Working Memory Load ◽

Visual Spatial ◽

Visual Spatial Working Memory ◽

Oculomotor Activity

The structure of working memory has components responsible for the storage of verbal and visualspatial information; despite the fairly detailed study of the functions and mechanisms of their work, the question of their mutual influence is still open. Studies on the verbal working memory load influence on visual search performance (a task requiring the use of visual-spatial working memory resources) it was found that the load on the verbal working memory leads to increased efficiency of target detection. The results of the analysis of oculomotor activity during visual search also point out that the implementation of such tasks under verbal working memory load is accompanied by an increase in cognitive tension and of the degree of search automaticity. The results may indicate the interaction of verbal and visual-spatial working memory components that share non-specific cognitive resources.

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