Visual Working Memory Enhances the Neural Response to Matching Visual Input

Completion of a partially occluded object requires that a representation of the whole is constructed based on the information provided by the physically specified parts of the stimulus. Such processes of amodal completion rely on the generation and maintenance of a mental image that renders the completed object in visual working memory (VWM). The present study examined this relationship between VWM storage and processes of object completion. We recorded event-related potentials to track VWM maintenance by means of the contralateral delay activity (CDA) during a change detection task in which composite objects (notched shapes abutting an occluding shape) to be memorized were primed to induce either a globally completed object or a noncompleted, mosaic representation. The results revealed an effect of completion in VWM despite physically identical visual input: change detection was more accurate for completed compared with mosaic representations when observers were required to memorize two objects, and these differences were reduced with four memorized items. At the electrophysiological level, globally completed (vs. mosaic) objects gave rise to a corresponding increase in CDA amplitudes. These results indicate that although incorporating the occluded portions of the presented shapes requires mnemonic resources, the complete object representations thus formed in VWM improve change detection performance by providing a more simple, regular shape. Overall, these findings demonstrate that mechanisms of object completion modulate VWM, with the memory load being determined by the structured representations of the memorized stimuli. NEW & NOTEWORTHY This study shows that completion of partially occluded objects requires visual working memory (VWM) resources. In the experiment reported, we induced observers to memorize a given visual input either as completed or as noncompleted objects. The results revealed both a behavioral performance advantage for completed vs. noncompleted objects despite physically identical input, and an associated modulation of an electrophysiological component that reflects VWM object retention, thus indicating that constructing an integrated object consumes mnemonic resources.

Download Full-text

Visual input that matches the content of visual working memory requires less (not faster) evidence sampling to reach conscious access

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/16.11.26 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (11) ◽

pp. 26 ◽

Cited By ~ 16

Author(s):

Surya Gayet ◽

Leendert van Maanen ◽

Micha Heilbron ◽

Chris L. E. Paffen ◽

Stefan Van der Stigchel

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Visual Input

Download Full-text

The content of visual working memory alters processing of visual input prior to conscious access: evidence from pupillometry

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/17.10.146 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 17 (10) ◽

pp. 146

Author(s):

Surya Gayet ◽

Chris Paffen ◽

Matthias Guggenmos ◽

Philipp Sterzer ◽

Stefan Van der Stigchel

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Visual Input

Download Full-text

Impulse responses reveal unimodal and bimodal access to visual and auditory working memory

10.1101/623835 ◽

2019 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

M. J. Wolff ◽

G. Kandemir ◽

M. G. Stokes ◽

E. G. Akyürek

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Impulse Response ◽

Neural Activity ◽

Visual Information ◽

Visual Stimulation ◽

Neural Response ◽

Auditory Memory ◽

Adaptive Behaviour ◽

Auditory Information

AbstractIt is unclear to what extent sensory processing areas are involved in the maintenance of sensory information in working memory (WM). Previous studies have thus far relied on finding neural activity in the corresponding sensory cortices, neglecting potential activity-silent mechanisms such as connectivity-dependent encoding. It has recently been found that visual stimulation during visual WM maintenance reveals WM-dependent changes through a bottom-up neural response. Here, we test whether this impulse response is uniquely visual and sensory-specific. Human participants (both sexes) completed visual and auditory WM tasks while electroencephalography was recorded. During the maintenance period, the WM network was perturbed serially with fixed and task-neutral auditory and visual stimuli. We show that a neutral auditory impulse-stimulus presented during the maintenance of a pure tone resulted in a WM-dependent neural response, providing evidence for the auditory counterpart to the visual WM findings reported previously. Interestingly, visual stimulation also resulted in an auditory WM-dependent impulse response, implicating the visual cortex in the maintenance of auditory information, either directly, or indirectly as a pathway to the neural auditory WM representations elsewhere. In contrast, during visual WM maintenance only the impulse response to visual stimulation was content-specific, suggesting that visual information is maintained in a sensory-specific neural network, separated from auditory processing areas.Significance StatementWorking memory is a crucial component of intelligent, adaptive behaviour. Our understanding of the neural mechanisms that support it has recently shifted: rather than being dependent on an unbroken chain of neural activity, working memory may rely on transient changes in neuronal connectivity, which can be maintained efficiently in activity-silent brain states. Previous work using a visual impulse stimulus to perturb the memory network has implicated such silent states in the retention of line orientations in visual working memory. Here, we show that auditory working memory similarly retains auditory information. We also observed a sensory-specific impulse response in visual working memory, while auditory memory responded bi-modally to both visual and auditory impulses, possibly reflecting visual dominance of working memory.

Download Full-text

Visual working memory enhances neural representations of matching visual input

Journal of Vision ◽

10.1167/16.12.705 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (12) ◽

pp. 705

Author(s):

Surya Gayet ◽

Matthias Guggenmos ◽

Thomas Christophel ◽

John-Dylan Haynes ◽

Chris Paffen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Visual Input ◽

Neural Representations

Download Full-text

Perceptual Comparisons Modulate Memory Biases Induced by Overlapping Visual Input

10.31234/osf.io/dqng3 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Joseph M. Saito ◽

Matthew Kolisnyk ◽

Keisuke Fukuda

Keyword(s):

Working Memory ◽

Recent Work ◽

Visual Working Memory ◽

Visual Input ◽

Neural Mechanisms ◽

Causal Role ◽

Specific Information ◽

Memory Biases ◽

Physical Similarity

Despite the active neural mechanisms that support the temporary maintenance of stimulus-specific information, visual working memory (VWM) content can be systematically biased towards novel perceptual input. These memory biases are commonly attributed to interference that arises when perceptual input is physically similar to current VWM content. However, recent work has suggested that deliberately comparing the similarity of VWM representations to novel perceptual input modulates the size of memory biases above and beyond stimulus-driven effects. Here, we sought to determine the modulatory nature of deliberate perceptual comparisons by comparing the size of memory biases following deliberate comparisons to those induced instead when novel perceptual input is ignored (Experiment 1) or encoded into VWM (Experiment 2). We find that individuals reported larger attraction biases in their VWM representation following deliberate perceptual comparisons than when they ignored or remembered the perceptual input. An analysis of participants’ perceptual comparisons revealed that memory biases were amplified when the perceptual input was endorsed as similar—but not dissimilar—to the current VWM representation. This pattern persisted even after the physical similarity between the VWM representation and perceptual input was matched across trials, confirming that perceptual comparisons themselves played a causal role in modulating memory biases. Together, these findings are consistent with the view that using a VWM representation to evaluate novel perceptual input risks exaggerating the featural overlap between them.

Download Full-text