scholarly journals Context triggers the retrieval of long-term memories into working memory to guide attention

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sirawaj Itthipuripat ◽  
Geoffrey F Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Behavioral Performance ◽  
Electrical Fields ◽  
Subject Variability ◽  
Transfer Of Information

SummaryHow do we know what we are looking for in familiar scenes and surroundings? Here we tested a novel hypothesis derived from theories of human memory that working memory (WM) buffers mnemonic contents retrieved from long-term memory (LTM) to control attention. To test this hypothesis, we measured the electrical fields recorded noninvasively from human subjects’ as they searched for specific sets of objects in learned contexts. We found that the subjects’ WM-indexing brain activity tracked the number of real-world objects people learned to search for in each context. Moreover, the level of this WM activity predicted the inter-subject variability in behavioral performance. Together, our results demonstrate that familiar contexts can trigger the transfer of information from LTM to WM to provide top-down attentional control.

scholarly journals An Indexing Theory for Working Memory based on Fast Hebbian Plasticity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Fiebig ◽  
Pawel Herman ◽  
Anders Lansner
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Memory Representation ◽  
Hebbian Plasticity ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
Spiking Neural Network Model

AbstractWorking memory (WM) is a key component of human memory and cognition. Computational models have been used to study the underlying neural mechanisms, but neglected the important role of short- and long-term memory interactions (STM, LTM) for WM. Here, we investigate these using a novel multi-area spiking neural network model of prefrontal cortex (PFC) and two parieto-temporal cortical areas based on macaque data. We propose a WM indexing theory that explains how PFC could associate, maintain and update multi-modal LTM representations. Our simulations demonstrate how simultaneous, brief multi-modal memory cues could build a temporary joint memory representation as an “index” in PFC by means of fast Hebbian synaptic plasticity. This index can then reactivate spontaneously and thereby reactivate the associated LTM representations. Cueing one LTM item rapidly pattern-completes the associated un-cued item via PFC. The PFC-STM network updates flexibly as new stimuli arrive thereby gradually over-writing older representations.

Working Memory Maintenance Contributes to Long-term Memory Formation: Neural and Behavioral Evidence

2005 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 994-1010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charan Ranganath ◽  
Michael X. Cohen ◽  
Craig J. Brozinsky
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Behavioral Experiment ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Dorsolateral Prefrontal

Theories of human memory have led to conflicting views regarding the relationship between working memory (WM) maintenance and episodic long-term memory (LTM) formation. Here, we tested the prediction that WM maintenance operates in two stages, and that processing during the initial stage of WM maintenance promotes successful LTM formation. Results from a functional magnetic resonance imaging study showed that activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and hippocampus during the initial stage of WM maintenance was predictive of subsequent LTM performance. In a behavioral experiment, we demonstrated that interfering with processing during the initial stage of WM maintenance impaired LTM formation. These results demonstrate that processing during the initial stage of WM maintenance directly contributes to successful LTM formation, and that this effect is mediated by a network that includes the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus.

scholarly journals Visual working memory buffers information retrieved from visual long-term memory

2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (20) ◽  
pp. 5306-5311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keisuke Fukuda ◽  
Geoffrey F. Woodman
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Human Memory ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
High Temporal Resolution ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Long Term Storage ◽  
New Information ◽  
Neurophysiological Activity ◽  
Term Storage

Human memory is thought to consist of long-term storage and short-term storage mechanisms, the latter known as working memory. Although it has long been assumed that information retrieved from long-term memory is represented in working memory, we lack neural evidence for this and need neural measures that allow us to watch this retrieval into working memory unfold with high temporal resolution. Here, we show that human electrophysiology can be used to track information as it is brought back into working memory during retrieval from long-term memory. Specifically, we found that the retrieval of information from long-term memory was limited to just a few simple objects’ worth of information at once, and elicited a pattern of neurophysiological activity similar to that observed when people encode new information into working memory. Our findings suggest that working memory is where information is buffered when being retrieved from long-term memory and reconcile current theories of memory retrieval with classic notions about the memory mechanisms involved.

scholarly journals Recruitment of a long-term memory supporting neural network during repeated maintenance of a multi-item abstract visual image in working memory

2022 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaartje T. H. Heinen ◽  
J. Leon Kenemans ◽  
Stefan van der Stigchel
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Working Memory ◽  
Recognition Task ◽  
Visual Image ◽  
Memory Systems ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Single Target ◽  
Transfer Of Information

AbstractHumans can flexibly transfer information between different memory systems. Information in visual working memory (VWM) can for instance be stored in long-term memory (LTM). Conversely, information can be retrieved from LTM and temporarily held in WM when needed. It has previously been suggested that a neural transition from parietal- to midfrontal activity during repeated visual search reflects transfer of information from WM to LTM. Whether this neural transition indeed reflects consolidation and is also observed when memorizing a rich visual scene (rather than responding to a single target), is not known. To investigate this, we employed an EEG paradigm, in which abstract six-item colour-arrays were repeatedly memorized and explicitly visualized, or merely attended to. Importantly, we tested the functional significance of a potential neural shift for longer-term consolidation in a subsequent recognition task. Our results show a gradually enhanced- and sustained modulation of the midfrontal P170 component and a decline in parietal CDA, during repeated WM maintenance. Improved recollection/visualization of memoranda upon WM-cueing, was associated with contralateral parietal- and right temporal activity. Importantly, only colour-arrays previously held in WM, induced a greater midfrontal P170-response, together with left temporal- and late centro-parietal activity, upon re-exposure. These findings provide evidence for recruitment of an LTM-supporting neural network which facilitates visual WM maintenance.

Conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) supports core claims of Christiansen and Chater

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary C. Potter
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Rapid Serial Visual Presentation ◽  
Language Comprehension ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Visual Presentation ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Use Of Knowledge

AbstractRapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) of words or pictured scenes provides evidence for a large-capacity conceptual short-term memory (CSTM) that momentarily provides rich associated material from long-term memory, permitting rapid chunking (Potter 1993; 2009; 2012). In perception of scenes as well as language comprehension, we make use of knowledge that briefly exceeds the supposed limits of working memory.

Visual Search Facilitation in Repeated Displays Depends on Visuospatial Working Memory

2012 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela A. Manginelli ◽  
Franziska Geringswald ◽  
Stefan Pollmann
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Search ◽  
Control Experiment ◽  
Memory Load ◽  
Contextual Cueing ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Visuospatial Working Memory ◽  
Working Memory Load ◽  
Memory Resources

When distractor configurations are repeated over time, visual search becomes more efficient, even if participants are unaware of the repetition. This contextual cueing is a form of incidental, implicit learning. One might therefore expect that contextual cueing does not (or only minimally) rely on working memory resources. This, however, is debated in the literature. We investigated contextual cueing under either a visuospatial or a nonspatial (color) visual working memory load. We found that contextual cueing was disrupted by the concurrent visuospatial, but not by the color working memory load. A control experiment ruled out that unspecific attentional factors of the dual-task situation disrupted contextual cueing. Visuospatial working memory may be needed to match current display items with long-term memory traces of previously learned displays.

Short- and long-term memory tasks predict working memory performance, and vice versa.

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Neath ◽  
Jean Saint-Aubin ◽  
Tamra J. Bireta ◽  
Andrew J. Gabel ◽  
Chelsea G. Hudson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Term Memory ◽  
Short And Long Term

Depth of Processing Differentially Affects Working Memory and Long-Term Memory

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan S. Rose ◽  
Joel Myerson ◽  
Henry L. Roediger ◽  
Sandra Hale
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Long Term Memory ◽  
Depth Of Processing ◽  
Term Memory

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.

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