Cognitive Control of Attentional Guidance by Visual and Verbal Working Memory Representations

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomoya Kawashima ◽  
Eriko Matsumoto
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Verbal Working Memory ◽  
Attentional Guidance ◽  
Memory Representations

Attentional Guidance from Activated and Inhibitory States of Working Memory Representations

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (9) ◽  
pp. 1089
Author(s):  
Bao ZHANG ◽  
Jiaying SHAO ◽  
Cenlou HU ◽  
Sai Huang
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Attentional Guidance ◽  
Memory Representations

scholarly journals Distributed networks for auditory memory contribute differentially to recall precision

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sung-Joo Lim ◽  
Christiane Thiel ◽  
Bernhard Sehm ◽  
Lorenz Deserno ◽  
Jöran Lepsien ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Brain Networks ◽  
Temporal Cortex ◽  
Superior Temporal Sulcus ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Auditory Memory ◽  
Control Brain ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Auditory Objects

AbstractThe representations held in working memory are inherently noisy, but attention directed to relevant objects can effectively enhance their fidelity. While recent working memory models suggest that memory representations are distributed across sensory and cognitive-control brain regions, it remains unknown how multiple brain networks generate this attentional gain in fidelity. Here, we investigated the contributions of the distinct brain networks in maintaining and enhancing memory representations using psychophysical modeling and fMRI. Human listeners performed an auditory syllable pitch-discrimination task, in which they received valid (vs. neutral) retro-active cues to selectively attend to one of the two syllable categories maintained in memory. Valid (vs. neutral) retro-cues facilitated task performance, eliciting faster recall and enhanced recall precision of syllables in memory. Valid retro-cues also led to increased neural activation in fronto-parietal and cingulo-opercular networks, but not in sensory-specific superior temporal cortex. Multivariate pattern analysis as a proxy for representational fidelity in memory revealed that attended syllable objects were maintained in distributed areas across superior temporal, frontal, parietal, and sensorimotor brain areas. However, neural fidelity in left superior temporal sulcus and its enhancement through attention-to-memory best predicted the ensuing individual gain in recall precision of auditory objects from memory. These results demonstrate that maintaining versus attentionally enhancing auditory memory representations are functionally separable mechanisms across distributed brain regions.Significance StatementWorking memory is distributed across sensory and cognitive-control brain regions. But how do these brain networks enhance working memory precision when attention is re-directed to memory? We here investigate the contributions of distinct brain networks in maintaining and enhancing auditory memory representations through attention-to-memory using fMRI. We demonstrate that re-directing attention to the relevant auditory memory objects mainly recruits higher-order cognitive-control networks. Among the multiple brain regions retaining memory representations, however, attentional enhancement of the neural fidelity in superior temporal sulcus best predicts the individual gain in recall precision of auditory objects from memory. This study provides evidence of the interplay among the discrete, functionally specialized brain regions in maintaining and attentionally enhancing working memory representations.

scholarly journals Precision requirement of working memory representations influences attentional guidance

2021 ◽  
Vol 53 (7) ◽  
pp. 694
Author(s):  
Xiaowei CHE ◽  
Huiyun XU ◽  
Kaixuan WANG ◽  
Qian ZHANG ◽  
Shouxin LI
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Attentional Guidance ◽  
Memory Representations

scholarly journals The state of memory-matched distractor in working memory influence the visual attention

PLoS ONE ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. e0242721
Author(s):  
Quanshan Long ◽  
Ting Luo ◽  
Sheng Zhang ◽  
Yuanling Jiang ◽  
Na Hu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Sensory Processing ◽  
Dual Task ◽  
The State ◽  
Attentional Guidance ◽  
Match To Sample ◽  
Multivariate Pattern

Information in working memory (WM) can guide visual attention towards matched features. While recent work has suggested that cognitive control can act upon WM guidance of visual attention, little is known about how the state of memorized items retaining in WM contribute to its influence over attention. Here, we disentangle the role of inhibition and maintenance on WM-guided attention with a novel delayed match-to-sample dual-task. The results showed that active inhibition facilitated searching by diminishing sensory processing and deterring attentional guidance, indexed by an attenuated P1 amplitude and unaffected N2pc amplitude, respectively. By contrast, active maintenance impaired searching by attentional guidance while sensory processing remained unimpaired, indexed by an enhanced N2pc amplitude and unchanged P1 amplitude, respectively. Furthermore, multivariate pattern analyses could sucessfully decode maintenance and inhibition, suggesting that two states differed in modulating visual attention. We propose that remembered contents may play an anchoring role for attentional guidance, and the state of those contents retaining in WM may directly influence the shifting of attention. The maintenance could guide attention by accessing input information, while the inhibition could deter the shifting of attention by suppressing sensory processing. These findings provide a possible reinterpretation of the influence of WM on attention.

scholarly journals Quantifying the cost of cognitive stability and flexibility

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danae Papadopetraki ◽  
Monja I. Froböse ◽  
Andrew Westbrook ◽  
Bram B. Zandbelt ◽  
Roshan Cools
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Cognitive Effort ◽  
Delayed Response ◽  
Cognitive Stability ◽  
Effort Discounting ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
The Cost

AbstractExerting cognitive control is well known to be accompanied by a subjective effort cost and people are generally biased to avoid it. However, the nature of cognitive control costs is currently unclear. Recent theorizing suggests that the cost of cognitive effort serves as a motivational signal to bias the system away from excessive focusing (i.e. cognitive stability) and towards more cognitive flexibility. We asked whether the effort cost of cognitive stability is higher than that of cognitive flexibility. Specifically, we tested this prediction in the domain of working memory by using (i) a delayed response paradigm that allows us to manipulate demands for stability (distractor resistance) and flexibility (flexible updating) of working memory representations, as well as (ii) a subsequent cognitive effort discounting paradigm that allows us to quantify the subjective effort costs assigned to performing the delayed response paradigm. We show strong evidence, in two different samples (28 and 62 participants respectively) that subjective cost increases as a function of demand. Moreover, we demonstrate that the subjective cost of performing a task requiring cognitive stability (distractor resistance) is higher than that requiring flexible updating, supporting the hypothesis that the subjective effort cost of cognitive stability is higher than that of flexibility.

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