scholarly journals Neural Substrates of Working Memory Updating

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (12) ◽  
pp. 2285-2302
Author(s):  
Gal Nir-Cohen ◽  
Yoav Kessler ◽  
Tobias Egner
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Sensory Cortex ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Gating Model ◽  
Gate Opening ◽  
Gating Mechanism ◽  
Current Content ◽  
Face Stimuli

Working memory (WM) needs to protect current content from interference and simultaneously be amenable to rapid updating with newly relevant information. An influential model suggests these opposing requirements are met via a BG–thalamus gating mechanism that allows for selective updating of PFC WM representations. A large neuroimaging literature supports the general involvement of PFC, BG, and thalamus, as well as posterior parietal cortex, in WM. However, the specific functional contributions of these regions to key subprocesses of WM updating, namely, gate opening, content substitution, and gate closing, are still unknown, as common WM tasks conflate these processes. We therefore combined fMRI with the reference-back task, specifically designed to tease apart these subprocesses. Participants compared externally presented face stimuli to a reference face held in WM, while alternating between updating and maintaining this reference, resulting in opening versus closing the gate to WM. Gate opening and substitution processes were associated with strong BG, thalamic, and frontoparietal activation, but intriguingly, the same activity profile was observed for sensory cortex supporting task stimulus processing (i.e., the fusiform face area). In contrast, gate closing was not reliably associated with any of these regions. These findings provide new support for the involvement of the BG in gate opening, as suggested by the gating model, but qualify the model's assumptions by demonstrating that gate closing does not seem to depend on the BG and that gate opening also involves task-relevant sensory cortex.

scholarly journals Neural substrates of working memory updating

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gal Nir-Cohen ◽  
Yoav Kessler ◽  
Tobias Egner
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Sensory Cortex ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Gating Model ◽  
Gate Opening ◽  
Gating Mechanism ◽  
Current Content ◽  
Face Stimuli

AbstractWorking memory (WM) needs to protect current content from interference and simultaneously be amenable to rapid updating with newly relevant information. An influential model suggests these opposing requirements are met via a basal ganglia (BG) - thalamus gating mechanism that allows for selective updating of prefrontal cortex (PFC) WM representations. A large neuroimaging literature supports the general involvement of the PFC, BG, and thalamus, as well as posterior parietal cortex (PPC), in WM. However, the specific functional contributions of these regions to key sub-processes of WM updating, namely gate-opening, content substitution, and gate closing, are still unknown, as common WM tasks conflate these processes. We therefore combined functional MRI with the reference-back task, specifically designed to tease apart these sub-processes. Participants compared externally presented face stimuli to a reference face held in WM, while alternating between updating and maintaining this reference, resulting in opening vs. closing the gate to WM. Gate opening and substitution processes were associated with strong BG, thalamic and fronto-parietal activation, but – intriguingly - the same activity profile was observed for sensory cortex supporting task stimulus processing (i.e., the fusiform face area). In contrast, gate closing was not reliably associated with any of these regions. These findings provide new support for the involvement of the BG in gate opening as suggested by the gating model, but qualify the model’s assumptions by demonstrating that gate closing does not seem to depend on the BG, and that gate opening also involves task-relevant sensory cortex.

Oscillatory Correlates of Control over Working Memory Gating and Updating: An EEG Study Using the Reference-back Paradigm

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 1870-1882 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Rac-Lubashevsky ◽  
Yoav Kessler
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Control Process ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Relative Increase ◽  
Delta Power ◽  
Control Functions ◽  
Gate Opening ◽  
Oscillatory Eeg ◽  
Delta Oscillations

Optimal working memory (WM) functioning depends on a control mechanism that balances between maintenance and updating by closing or opening the gate to WM, respectively. Here, we examined the neural oscillation correlates of WM updating and of the control processes involved in gating. The reference-back paradigm was employed to manipulate gate opening, gate closing, and updating independently and examine how the control functions involved in these processes are mapped to oscillatory EEG activity. The results established that different oscillatory patterns were associated with the control process related to gate opening than in gate closing. During the time of gate closing, a relative increase in theta power was observed over midfrontal electrodes. This theta response is a known EEG signature of cognitive control that is proposed here to reflect reactive conflict resolution, achieved by closing the gate when facing irrelevant information. On the other hand, proactive gate opening in preparation for relevant information was associated with an increase in relative delta power over parietal-occipital electrodes. Finally, WM updating was associated with relative increase in delta power over midfrontal electrodes, suggesting a functional role of delta oscillations in WM updating.

scholarly journals Baseline-dependent effect of dopamine’s precursor L-tyrosine on working memory gating but not updating

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryant Jongkees
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Dynamic Balance ◽  
Regression To The Mean ◽  
Double Blind ◽  
Dependent Effect ◽  
High Performing ◽  
Gate Opening ◽  
Gating Mechanism ◽  
Within Subjects ◽  
Goal Directed Behavior

Adaptive goal-directed behavior requires a dynamic balance between maintenance and updating within working memory (WM). This balance is controlled by an input-gating mechanism implemented by dopamine in the basal ganglia. Given that dopaminergic manipulations can modulate performance on WM-related tasks, it is important to gain mechanistic insight into whether such manipulations differentially affect updating (i.e., encoding and removal) and the closely-related gate opening/closing processes that respectively enable/prevent updating. To clarify this issue, 2.0 g of dopamine’s precursor L-tyrosine was administered to healthy young adults (N = 45) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects study. WM processes were empirically distinguished using the reference-back paradigm, which isolates performance related to updating, gate opening, and gate closing. L-tyrosine had a selective, baseline-dependent effect only on gate opening: low-performing subjects improved whereas high-performing subjects were impaired on L-tyrosine. Importantly, this inverted-U shaped pattern was not explained by regression to the mean. These results are consistent with an inverted-U relationship between dopamine and WM, and they indicate that updating and gating are differentially affected by a dopaminergic manipulation. This highlights the importance of distinguishing these processes when studying WM, for example in the context of WM deficits in disorders with a dopaminergic pathophysiology.

scholarly journals Persistent activity in primate auditory cortex evoked by sensory stimulation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Cooke ◽  
Julie J. Lee ◽  
Edward L. Bartlett ◽  
Xiaoqin Wang ◽  
Daniel Bendor
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Auditory Cortex ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Acoustic Stimulus ◽  
Sensory Stimulation ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Sensory Cortex ◽  
Persistent Activity ◽  
Passive Listening ◽  
Sustained Responses

AbstractPersistent activity, the elevated firing of a neuron after the termination of a stimulus, is hypothesized to play a critical role in working memory. This form of activity is therefore typically studied within the context of a behavioural task that includes a working memory component. Here we investigated whether persistent activity is observed in sensory cortex and thalamus in the absence of any explicit behavioural task. We recorded spiking activity from single units in the auditory cortex (fields A1, R and RT) and thalamus of awake, passively-listening marmosets. We observed persistent activity that lasted for hundreds of milliseconds following the termination of the acoustic stimulus, in the absence of a task. Persistent activity was observed following both adapting and sustained responses during the stimulus and showed similar stimulus tuning to these evoked responses. Persistent activity was also observed following suppression in firing during the stimulus. These response types were observed across all cortical fields tested, but were largely absent from thalamus. As well as being of shorter duration, thalamic persistent activity emerged following a longer latency than in cortex, indicating that persistent activity may be generated within auditory cortex during passive listening. Given that these responses were observed in the absence of a explicit behavioural task, persistent activity in sensory cortex may have functional importance beyond storing task-relevant information in working memory.

scholarly journals Proactive interference and the development of working memory

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mollie Hamilton ◽  
Ashley Ross ◽  
Erik Blaser ◽  
Zsuzsa Kaldy
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Proactive Interference ◽  
Early Development ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Left Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Working Memory (WM), the ability to maintain information in service to a task, is characterized by its limited capacity. Several influential models attribute this limitation in a large extent to proactive interference (Anderson & Neely, 1996; Bunting, 2006; Kane & Engle, 2000), the phenomenon that previously encoded, now-irrelevant information competes with relevant information (Keppel & Underwood, 1963). Here, we look back at the adult PI literature, spanning over sixty years, as well as recent results linking the ability to cope with PI to WM capacity (Endress & Potter, 2014; Kane & Engle, 2000). In early development, WM capacity is even more limited (Kaldy & Leslie, 2005; Simmering, 2012), yet an accounting for the role of PI has been lacking. Our Focus Article aims to address this through an integrative account: since PI resolution is mediated by networks involving the frontal cortex (particularly, the left inferior frontal gyrus) and the posterior parietal cortex (Badre & Wagner, 2005; Jonides & Nee, 2006), and since children have protracted development and less recruitment (Crone et al., 2006) of these areas, the increase in the ability to cope with PI (Kail, 2002; De Visscher & Noel, 2014) is a major factor underlying the increase in WM capacity in early development. Given this, we suggest that future research should focus on mechanistic studies of PI resolution in children. Finally, we note a crucial methodological implication: typical WM paradigms repeat stimuli from trial-to-trial, facilitating, inadvertently, PI and reducing performance; we may be fundamentally underestimating children’s WM capacity.

Slow Wave Activity Related to Working Memory Maintenance in the N-Back Task

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 141-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kira Bailey ◽  
Gregory Mlynarczyk ◽  
Robert West
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Slow Wave ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Wave Activity ◽  
Slow Wave Activity ◽  
Response Accuracy ◽  
Functional Neuroanatomy ◽  
Stimulus Interval ◽  
Back Task

Abstract. Working memory supports our ability to maintain goal-relevant information that guides cognition in the face of distraction or competing tasks. The N-back task has been widely used in cognitive neuroscience to examine the functional neuroanatomy of working memory. Fewer studies have capitalized on the temporal resolution of event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to examine the time course of neural activity in the N-back task. The primary goal of the current study was to characterize slow wave activity observed in the response-to-stimulus interval in the N-back task that may be related to maintenance of information between trials in the task. In three experiments, we examined the effects of N-back load, interference, and response accuracy on the amplitude of the P3b following stimulus onset and slow wave activity elicited in the response-to-stimulus interval. Consistent with previous research, the amplitude of the P3b decreased as N-back load increased. Slow wave activity over the frontal and posterior regions of the scalp was sensitive to N-back load and was insensitive to interference or response accuracy. Together these findings lead to the suggestion that slow wave activity observed in the response-to-stimulus interval is related to the maintenance of information between trials in the 1-back task.

Evidence for a single mechanism gating perceptual and long-term memory information into working memory

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sam Verschooren ◽  
Yoav Kessler ◽  
Tobias Egner
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Source Selection ◽  
Single Mechanism ◽  
Gating Mechanism ◽  
Opening And Closing ◽  
Selection Of

An influential view of working memory (WM) holds that its’ contents are controlled by a selective gating mechanism that allows for relevant perceptual information to enter WM when opened, but shields WM contents from interference when closed. In support of this idea, prior studies using the reference-back paradigm have established behavioral costs for opening and closing the gate between perception and WM. WM also frequently requires input from long-term memory (LTM), but it is currently unknown whether a similar gate controls the selection of LTM representations into WM, and how WM gating of perceptual vs. LTM sources of information relate to each other. To address these key theoretical questions, we devised a novel version of the reference-back paradigm, where participants switched between gating perceptual and LTM information into WM. We observed clear evidence for gate opening and closing costs in both cases. Moreover, the pattern of costs associated with gating and source-switching indicated that perceptual and LTM information is gated into WM via a single gate, and rely on a shared source-selection mechanism. These findings extend current models of WM gating to encompass LTM information, and outline a new functional WM architecture.

scholarly journals Cognitive Control of Working Memory: A Model-Based Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 721
Author(s):  
Russell J. Boag ◽  
Niek Stevenson ◽  
Roel van Dooren ◽  
Anne C. Trutti ◽  
Zsuzsika Sjoerds ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Decision Time ◽  
Control Processes ◽  
Prepotent Response ◽  
New Information ◽  
Empirical Performance ◽  
Flow Of Information

Working memory (WM)-based decision making depends on a number of cognitive control processes that control the flow of information into and out of WM and ensure that only relevant information is held active in WM’s limited-capacity store. Although necessary for successful decision making, recent work has shown that these control processes impose performance costs on both the speed and accuracy of WM-based decisions. Using the reference-back task as a benchmark measure of WM control, we conducted evidence accumulation modeling to test several competing explanations for six benchmark empirical performance costs. Costs were driven by a combination of processes, running outside of the decision stage (longer non-decision time) and showing the inhibition of the prepotent response (lower drift rates) in trials requiring WM control. Individuals also set more cautious response thresholds when expecting to update WM with new information versus maintain existing information. We discuss the promise of this approach for understanding cognitive control in WM-based decision making.

P34. Working memory for faces in congenital prosopagnosia: altered neural representations in the fusiform face area

2018 ◽  
Vol 129 (8) ◽  
pp. e80-e81
Author(s):  
A. Haeger ◽  
C. Pouzat ◽  
V. Luecken ◽  
K. N’Diaye ◽  
C.E. Elger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Fusiform Face Area ◽  
Face Area ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Congenital Prosopagnosia

scholarly journals Temporal Properties of Posterior Parietal Neuron Discharges During Working Memory and Passive Viewing

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (3) ◽  
pp. 2254-2266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederik C. Joelving ◽  
Albert Compte ◽  
Christos Constantinidis
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Power Spectra ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Spatial Location ◽  
Spike Trains ◽  
Memory Condition ◽  
Temporal Properties ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Working memory is mediated by the discharges of neurons in a distributed network of brain areas. It was recently suggested that enhanced rhythmicity in neuronal activity may be critical for sustaining remembered information. To test whether working memory is characterized by unique temporal discharge patterns, we analyzed the autocorrelograms and power spectra of spike trains recorded from the posterior parietal cortex of monkeys performing a visuospatial working-memory task. We compared the intervals of active memory maintenance and fixation and repeated the same analysis in spike trains from monkeys never trained to perform any kind of memory task. The most salient effect we observed was a decrease of power in the 5- to 10-Hz frequency range during the presentation of visual stimuli. This pattern was observed both in the working-memory condition and the control condition, although it was more prominent in the former, where it persisted after cue presentation when the monkeys actively remembered the spatial location of the stimulus. Low-frequency power suppression resulted from relative refractory periods that were significantly longer in the working-memory condition and presumably emerged from local-circuit inhibition. We also detected a spectral peak in the 15- to 20-Hz range, although this was more prominent during fixation than during the stimulus and working-memory periods. Our results are in line with previous reports in prefrontal cortex and indicate that unique temporal patterns of single-neuron firing characterize persistent delay activity, although these do not involve the appearance of enhanced oscillations.

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