Reevaluating the Sensory Account of Visual Working Memory Storage

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 794-815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaoda Xu
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Storage

scholarly journals Fear not! Anxiety biases attentional enhancement of threat without impairing working memory filtering

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Salahub ◽  
Stephen Emrich
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
State Anxiety ◽  
Attentional Control ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Attentional Biases ◽  
Related Potentials ◽  
Filtering Efficiency ◽  
Memory Resources

Individuals with anxiety have attentional biases toward threat-related distractors. This deficit in attentional control has been shown to impact visual working memory (VWM) filtering efficiency, as anxious individuals inappropriately store threatening distractors in VWM. It remains unclear, however, whether this mis-allocation of memory resources is due to inappropriate attentional enhancement of threatening distractors, or to a failure in suppression. Here, we used a systematically lateralized VWM task with fearful and neutral faces to examine event-related potentials related to attentional selection (N2pc), suppression (PD), and working memory maintenance (CDA). We found that state anxiety correlated with attentional enhancement of threat-related distractors, such that more anxious individuals had larger N2pc amplitudes toward fearful distractors than neutral distractors. However, there was no correlation between anxiety and memory storage of fearful distractors (CDA). These findings demonstrate that anxiety biases attention toward fearful distractors, but that this bias does not always guarantee increased memory storage of threat-related distractors.

scholarly journals Using the flicker task to estimate visual working memory storage capacity

2019 ◽  
Vol 82 (3) ◽  
pp. 1271-1289 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hrag Pailian ◽  
Daniel J. Simons ◽  
Jeffrey Wetherhold ◽  
Justin Halberda
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Storage Capacity ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Flicker Task

Visual Working Memory Storage Recruits Sensory Processing Areas

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surya Gayet ◽  
Chris L.E. Paffen ◽  
Stefan Van der Stigchel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Memory Storage

Seeking the Neural Substrates of Visual Working Memory Storage

Cortex ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 39 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 927-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
B POSTLE ◽  
T DRUZGAL ◽  
M DESPOSITO
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Neural Substrates ◽  
Memory Storage

Impact of Experimental Modulation of EEG Alpha Power on Visual Working Memory Storage in Healthy Participants

2020 ◽  
Vol 87 (9) ◽  
pp. S403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Erickson ◽  
Dillon Smith ◽  
Laura Crespo ◽  
Steven Silverstein
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Eeg Alpha ◽  
Healthy Participants

Essential considerations for exploring visual working memory storage in the human brain

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Polina Iamshchinina ◽  
Thomas B. Christophel ◽  
Surya Gayet ◽  
Rosanne L. Rademaker
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Storage

scholarly journals Maintenance of Bound or Independent Features in Visual Working Memory is Task-dependent

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoyi Cao ◽  
Yoni Pertzov ◽  
Zaifeng Gao ◽  
Mowei Shen ◽  
Leon Y. Deouell
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Functional Property ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Implicit Assumption ◽  
Eeg Signals ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Reliable Evidence ◽  
Independent Features

AbstractOver the last decade, seemingly conflicting results were obtained regarding the question of whether features of an object are stored separately, or bound together, in working memory (WM). Many of these studies are based on an implicit assumption about a default, or fixed, mode of working memory storage. However, according to recent findings about the functional property of WM, we proposed that anticipated memory probes used in a given experiment might actually determine the format in which information is maintained in WM. In order to test this flexible maintenance hypothesis, we recorded EEG while subjects performed a delayed-match-to-sample task with and without the requirement of maintaining bound features. In two experiments, we found significant differences in EEG signals recorded in central-parietal channels between the two conditions, providing reliable evidence for such flexible maintenance.

scholarly journals Contralateral Delay Activity Indexes Working Memory Storage, Not the Current Focus of Spatial Attention

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (8) ◽  
pp. 1185-1196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Feldmann-Wüstefeld ◽  
Edward K. Vogel ◽  
Edward Awh
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Attention ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Alternative Interpretation ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Probe Display ◽  
Contralateral Delay Activity

Contralateral delay activity (CDA) has long been argued to track the number of items stored in visual working memory (WM). Recently, however, Berggren and Eimer [Berggren, N., & Eimer, M. Does contralateral delay activity reflect working memory storage or the current focus of spatial attention within visual working memory? Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28, 2003–2020, 2016] proposed the alternative hypothesis that the CDA tracks the current focus of spatial attention instead of WM storage. This hypothesis was based on the finding that, when two successive arrays of memoranda were placed in opposite hemifields, CDA amplitude was primarily determined by the position and number of items in the second display, not the total memory load across both displays. Here, we considered the alternative interpretation that participants dropped the first array from WM when they encoded the second array because the format of the probe display was spatially incompatible with the initial sample display. In this case, even if the CDA indexes active storage rather than spatial attention, CDA activity would be determined by the second array. We tested this idea by directly manipulating the spatial compatibility of sample and probe displays. With spatially incompatible displays, we replicated Berggren and Eimer's findings. However, with spatially compatible displays, we found clear evidence that CDA activity tracked the full storage load across both arrays, in line with a WM storage account of CDA activity. We propose that expectations of display compatibility influenced whether participants viewed the arrays as parts of a single extended event or two independent episodes. Thus, these findings raise interesting new questions about how event boundaries may shape the interplay between passive and active representations of task-relevant information.

scholarly journals The Contralateral Delay Activity Tracks the Sequential Loading of Objects into Visual Working Memory, Unlike Lateralized Alpha Oscillations

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (11) ◽  
pp. 1689-1698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sisi Wang ◽  
Jason Rajsic ◽  
Geoffrey F. Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Memory Storage ◽  
Alpha Power ◽  
Alpha Oscillations ◽  
Contralateral Delay Activity ◽  
Continuous Stream ◽  
Additional Object

Visual working memory temporarily represents a continuous stream of task-relevant objects as we move through our environment performing tasks. Previous work has identified candidate neural mechanisms of visual working memory storage; however, we do not know which of these mechanisms enable the storage of objects as we sequentially encounter them in our environment. Here, we measured the contralateral delay activity (CDA) and lateralized alpha oscillations as human subjects were shown a series of objects that they needed to remember. The amplitude of CDA increased following the presentation of each to-be-remembered object, reaching asymptote at about three to four objects. In contrast, the concurrently measured lateralized alpha power remained constant with each additional object. Our results suggest that the CDA indexes the storage of objects in visual working memory, whereas lateralized alpha suppression indexes the focusing of attention on the to-be-remembered objects.

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