scholarly journals The effect of unprovoked eye movements during visual working memory retention

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 39b
Author(s):  
Carly J. Leonard ◽  
Alexander S. Morales
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Memory Retention

Movement and Attention in Visual Working Memory

1986 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 689-703 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. G. Quinn ◽  
G. E. Ralston
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Arm Movements ◽  
Spatial Code ◽  
Performance Decrement ◽  
Interference Effects ◽  
Initial Information ◽  
Per Se ◽  
A Performance

Three experiments that adopt an interference technique to investigate the involvement of movement in the production of a spatial code are described. Arm movements rather than the more commonly employed eye movements are used to provide initial information about the sorts of movements relevant to the code and to allow an empirical separation of the contributions of movement and attention. The results confirm the interference effects of incompatible movement on the generation of the spatial code and show that movement per se rather than attention to the movement can cause a performance decrement.

scholarly journals Visual working memory representations in visual and parietal cortex do not remap after eye movements

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao He ◽  
Matthias Ekman ◽  
Annelinde R.E. Vandenbroucke ◽  
Floris P. de Lange
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Cortex ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Visual System ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
List Type ◽  
Early Visual Cortex

ABSTRACTIt has been suggested that our visual system does not only process stimuli that are directly available to our eyes, but also has a role in maintaining information in VWM over a period of seconds. It remains unclear however what happens to VWM representations in the visual system when we make saccades. Here, we tested the hypothesis that VWM representations are remapped within the visual system after making saccades. We directly compared the content of VWM for saccade and no-saccade conditions using MVPA of delay-related activity measured with fMRI. We found that when participants did not make a saccade, VWM representations were robustly present in contralateral early visual cortex. When making a saccade, VWM representations degraded in contralateral V1-V3 after the saccade shifted the location of the remembered grating to the opposite visual field. However, contrary to our hypothesis we found no evidence for the representations of the remembered grating at the saccadic target location in the opposite visual field, suggesting that there is no evidence for remapping of VWM in early visual cortex. Interestingly, IPS showed persistent VWM representations in both the saccade and no-saccade condition. Together, our results indicate that VWM representations in early visual cortex are not remapped across eye movements, potentially limiting the role of early visual cortex in VWM storage.HighlightsVisual working memory (VWM) representations do not remap after making saccadesEye movement degrade VWM representations in early visual cortex, limiting the role of early visual cortex in VWM storageParietal cortex shows persistent VWM representations across saccades

scholarly journals Attending and inhibiting stimuli that match the contents of visual working memory: Evidence from eye movements and pupillometry

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastiaan Mathôt ◽  
Elle Van Heusden ◽  
Stefan Van der Stigchel
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Sustained Attention ◽  
Pupil Size ◽  
Attention Bias ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Do So

When you keep a red apple in working memory, your attention is usually—but not always—attracted by other red objects. The conditions under which the contents of visual working memory guide visual attention are still unclear. Here we tested whether attention is indeed biased toward memory-match stimuli, and, if so, whether this bias is transient or sustained. We used a new pupillometric technique, which exploits that the pupil is larger when you covertly attend to dark, compared to bright, stimuli. This allowed us to test whether and when attention was biased toward memory-match stimuli, by placing them either on a dark or a bright background, while measuring pupil size over time. We found that the eyes were captured by memory-match probes early on in the trial. However, the pupillary data suggested that there was no sustained attention bias toward memory-match probes later in time; rather, attention appeared to be biased away from them. Together, our results suggest that: (1) memory-match stimuli automatically capture attention; but (2) they do so only briefly; and (3) they may even become inhibited later in time.

scholarly journals Motor learning by selection in visual working memory

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilja Wagner ◽  
Christian Wolf ◽  
Alexander C. Schütz
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Saccadic Eye Movements ◽  
Neural Basis ◽  
Temporal Window ◽  
Optimal Movement ◽  
Saccade Adaptation

AbstractMotor adaptation maintains movement accuracy over the lifetime. Saccadic eye movements have been used successfully to study the mechanisms and neural basis of adaptation. Using behaviorally irrelevant targets, it has been shown that saccade adaptation is driven by errors only in a brief temporal interval after movement completion. However, under natural conditions, eye movements are used to extract information from behaviorally relevant objects and to guide actions manipulating these objects. In this case, the action outcome often becomes apparent only long after movement completion, outside the supposed temporal window of error evaluation. Here, we show that saccade adaptation can be driven by error signals long after the movement when using behaviorally relevant targets. Adaptation occurred when a task-relevant target appeared two seconds after the saccade, or when a retro-cue indicated which of two targets, stored in visual working memory, was task-relevant. Our results emphasize the important role of visual working memory for optimal movement control.

scholarly journals Eye movement-related confounds in neural decoding of visual working memory representations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pim Mostert ◽  
Anke Marit Albers ◽  
Loek Brinkman ◽  
Larisa Todorova ◽  
Peter Kok ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Eye Movement ◽  
Visual Working Memory ◽  
Delay Period ◽  
Imagery Task ◽  
Neural Decoding ◽  
Neural Signals ◽  
Stable Representation ◽  
Neural Underpinnings

AbstractThe study of visual working memory (VWM) has recently seen revitalization with the emergence of new insights and theories regarding its neural underpinnings. One crucial ingredient responsible for this progress is the rise of neural decoding techniques. These techniques promise to uncover the representational contents of neural signals, as well as the underlying code and the dynamic profile thereof. Here, we aimed to contribute to the field by subjecting human volunteers to a combined VWM/imagery task, while recording and decoding their neural signals as measured by MEG. At first sight, the results seem to provide evidence for a persistent, stable representation of the memorandum throughout the delay period. However, control analyses revealed that these findings can be explained by subtle, VWM-specific eye movements. As a potential remedy, we demonstrate the use of a functional localizer, which was specifically designed to target bottom-up sensory signals and as such avoids eye movements, to train the neural decoders. This analysis revealed a sustained representation for approximately 1 second, but no longer throughout the entire delay period. We conclude by arguing for more awareness of the potentially pervasive and ubiquitous effects of eye movement-related confounds.Significance statementVisual working memory is an important aspect of higher cognition and has been subject of much investigation within the field of cognitive neuroscience. Over recent years, these studies have increasingly relied on the use of neural decoding techniques. Here, we show that neural decoding may be susceptible to confounds induced by stimulus-specific eye movements. Such eye movements during working memory have been reported before, and may in fact be a common phenomenon. Given the widespread use of neural decoding and the potentially contaminating effects of eye movements, we therefore believe that our results are of significant relevance for the field.

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