Effects of a secondary task and working memory load on multisensory hand position

2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (0) ◽  
pp. 58
Author(s):  
Katrina Quinn ◽  
Francia Acosta-Saltos ◽  
Jan W. de Fockert ◽  
Charles Spence ◽  
Andrew J. Bremner
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Secondary Task ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Hand Position ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
Relative Weighting

Information about where our hands are arises from different sensory modalities; chiefly proprioception and vision. These inputs differ in variability from situation to situation (or task to task). According to the idea of ‘optimal integration’, the information provided by different sources is combined in proportion to their relative reliabilities, thus maximizing the reliability of the combined estimate. It is uncertain whether optimal multisensory integration of multisensory contributions to limb position requires executive resources. If so, then it should be possible to observe effects of secondary task performance and/or working memory load (WML) on the relative weighting of the senses under conditions of crossmodal sensory conflict. Alternatively, an integrated signal may be affected by upstream influences of WML or a secondary task on the reliabilities of the individual sensory inputs. We examine these possibilities in two experiments which examine effects of WML on reaching tasks in which bisensory visual-proprioceptive (Exp. 1), and unisensory proprioceptive (Exp. 2) cues to hand position are provided. WML increased visual capture under conditions of visual-proprioceptive conflict, regardless of the direction of visual-proprioceptive conflict, and the degree of load imposed. This indicates that task-switching (rather than WML load) leads to an increased reliance on visual information regardless of its task-specific reliability (Exp. 1). This could not be explained due to an increase in the variability of proprioception under secondary working memory task conditions (Exp. 2). We conclude that executive resources are involved in the relative weighting of visual and proprioceptive cues to hand position.

Abnormal prefrontal activity subserving attentional control of emotion in remitted depressed patients during a working memory task with emotional distracters

2011 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Kerestes ◽  
C. D. Ladouceur ◽  
S. Meda ◽  
P. J. Nathan ◽  
H. P. Blumberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Region Of Interest ◽  
Blood Oxygen Level Dependent ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Depressed Patients ◽  
The Right

BackgroundPatients with major depressive disorder (MDD) show deficits in processing of facial emotions that persist beyond recovery and cessation of treatment. Abnormalities in neural areas supporting attentional control and emotion processing in remitted depressed (rMDD) patients suggests that there may be enduring, trait-like abnormalities in key neural circuits at the interface of cognition and emotion, but this issue has not been studied systematically.MethodNineteen euthymic, medication-free rMDD patients (mean age 33.6 years; mean duration of illness 34 months) and 20 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC; mean age 35.8 years) performed the Emotional Face N-Back (EFNBACK) task, a working memory task with emotional distracter stimuli. We used blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure neural activity in the dorsolateral (DLPFC) and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), ventral striatum and amygdala, using a region of interest (ROI) approach in SPM2.ResultsrMDD patients exhibited significantly greater activity relative to HC in the left DLPFC [Brodmann area (BA) 9/46] in response to negative emotional distracters during high working memory load. By contrast, rMDD patients exhibited significantly lower activity in the right DLPFC and left VLPFC compared to HC in response to positive emotional distracters during high working memory load. These effects occurred during accurate task performance.ConclusionsRemitted depressed patients may continue to exhibit attentional biases toward negative emotional information, reflected by greater recruitment of prefrontal regions implicated in attentional control in the context of negative emotional information.

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.

scholarly journals Working Memory and the Suppression of Reflexive Saccades

2002 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-103 ◽  
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.

scholarly journals Learning to suppress a distractor is not affected by working memory load

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ya Gao ◽  
Jan Theeuwes
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
High Probability ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Automatic Process ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Statistical Regularities

AbstractWhere and what we attend to is not only determined by our current goals but also by what we have encountered in the past. Recent studies have shown that people learn to extract statistical regularities in the environment resulting in attentional suppression of high-probability distractor locations, effectively reducing capture by a distractor. Here, we asked whether this statistical learning is dependent on working memory resources. The additional singleton task in which one location was more likely to contain a distractor was combined with a concurrent visual working memory task (Experiment 1) and a spatial working memory task (Experiment 2). The result showed that learning to suppress this high-probability location was not at all affected by working memory load. We conclude that learning to suppress a location is an implicit and automatic process that does not rely on visual or spatial working memory capacity, nor on executive control resources. We speculate that extracting regularities from the environment likely relies on long-term memory processes.

Performance Dissociation during Verbal and Spatial Working Memory Tasks

2007 ◽  
Vol 105 (1) ◽  
pp. 243-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie J. Nagel ◽  
Arthur Ohannessian ◽  
Kevin Cummins
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Individual Performance ◽  
Task Design ◽  
Brain Response ◽  
Working Memory Load

Past research has inconsistently distinguished the neural substrates of various types of working memory. Task design and individual performance differences are known to alter patterns of brain response during working-memory tasks. These task and individual differences may have produced discrepancies in imaging findings. This study of 50 healthy adults ( Mage = 19.6 yr., SD = .8) examined performance during various parametric manipulations of a verbal and spatial n-back working-memory task. Performance systematically dissociated on the basis of working-memory load, working memory type, and stimulus difficulty, with participants having greater accuracy but slower response time during conditions requiring verbal versus spatial working memory. These findings hold implications for cognitive and neuroimaging studies of verbal and spatial working memory and highlight the importance of considering both task design and individual behavior.

scholarly journals The Role of Cognitive Load in Intentional Forgetting Using the Think/No-Think Task

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saima Noreen ◽  
Jan W. de Fockert
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Load Condition ◽  
Cognitive Resources ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Intentional Forgetting ◽  
Probe Test ◽  
Target Words

Abstract. We investigated the role of cognitive control in intentional forgetting by manipulating working memory load during the think/no-think task. In two experiments, participants learned a series of cue-target word pairs and were asked to recall the target words associated with some cues or to avoid thinking about the target associated with other cues. In addition to this, participants also performed a modified version of the n-back task which required them to respond to the identity of a single target letter present in the currently presented cue word (n = 0 condition, low working memory load), and in either the previous cue word (n = 1 condition, high working memory load, Experiment 1) or the cue word presented two trials previously (n = 2 condition, high working memory load, Experiment 2). Participants’ memory for the target words was subsequently tested using same and novel independent probes. In both experiments it was found that although participants were successful at forgetting on both the same and independent-probe tests in the low working memory load condition, they were only successful at forgetting on the same-probe test in the high working memory load condition. We argue that our findings suggest that the high load working memory task diverted attention from direct suppression and acted as an interference-based strategy. Thus, when cognitive resources are limited participants can switch between the strategies they use to prevent unwanted memories from coming to mind.

scholarly journals Neural mechanisms underlying the precision of visual working memory

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yijie Zhao ◽  
Shuguang Kuai ◽  
Theodore P. Zanto ◽  
Yixuan Ku
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Behavioral Experiment ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Lateral Occipital Complex ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Memory Precision ◽  
The Brain

AbstractThe neural mechanisms associated with the limited capacity of working memory has long been studied, but it is still unclear how the brain maintains the fidelity of representations in working memory. Here, an orientation recall task for estimating the precision of visual working memory was performed both inside and outside an fMRI scanner. Results showed that the trial-by-trial recall error (in radians) was correlated with delay period activity in the lateral occipital complex (LOC) during working memory maintenance, regardless of the memory load. Moreover, delay activity in LOC also correlated with the individual participant’s precision of working memory from a separate behavioral experiment held two weeks prior. Furthermore, a region within the prefrontal cortex, the inferior frontal junction (IFJ), exhibited greater functional connectivity with LOC when the working memory load increased. Together, our findings provide unique evidence that the LOC supports visual working memory precision, while communication between the IFJ and LOC varys with visual working memory load.

ERP effects of methylphenidate and working memory load in healthy adults during a serial visual working memory task

2010 ◽  
Vol 482 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Studer ◽  
Susanne Wangler ◽  
Martin S. Diruf ◽  
Oliver Kratz ◽  
Gunther H. Moll ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Healthy Adults ◽  
Working Memory Load

scholarly journals Dynamic causal brain circuits during working memory and their functional controllability

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Weidong Cai ◽  
Srikanth Ryali ◽  
Ramkrishna Pasumarthy ◽  
Viswanath Talasila ◽  
Vinod Menon
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal ◽  
Brain Circuit ◽  
Control Circuits ◽  
And Control ◽  
Network Controllability

AbstractControl processes associated with working memory play a central role in human cognition, but their underlying dynamic brain circuit mechanisms are poorly understood. Here we use system identification, network science, stability analysis, and control theory to probe functional circuit dynamics during working memory task performance. Our results show that dynamic signaling between distributed brain areas encompassing the salience (SN), fronto-parietal (FPN), and default mode networks can distinguish between working memory load and predict performance. Network analysis of directed causal influences suggests the anterior insula node of the SN and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex node of the FPN are causal outflow and inflow hubs, respectively. Network controllability decreases with working memory load and SN nodes show the highest functional controllability. Our findings reveal dissociable roles of the SN and FPN in systems control and provide novel insights into dynamic circuit mechanisms by which cognitive control circuits operate asymmetrically during cognition.

scholarly journals Is heart rate variability related to cognitive performance in visuospatial working memory?

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muthukrishnan Suriya-Prakash ◽  
Gurja John-Preetham ◽  
Ratna Sharma
Keyword(s):  
Heart Rate ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Heart Rate Variability ◽  
Cognitive Performance ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Memory Task ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Load

In the current study, we investigated the relation between cognitive performance and heart rate variability in visuospatial working memory. We used a visuospatial working memory paradigm involving simultaneous encoding, maintenance, active manipulation and retrieval to simulate routine daily activities. Subjects performed the visuospatial working memory paradigm which had 3 memory loads and simultaneous ECG recording was acquired for measuring heart rate variability. Based on the performance in the visuospatial working memory task, subjects were segregated into two groups: Good performers and poor performers. Two major findings emerged in this study. First, the heart rate variability decreased with an increase in the working memory load. Second, good performers had relatively higher heart rate variability compared to poor performers while performing the visuospatial working memory task. Our results highlighted the influence of cognitive performance on heart rate variability. In summary, the current study indicates that the heart rate variability during the visuospatial working memory task could predict the qualitative differences in the cognitive performance between the individuals.

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