scholarly journals Spatial working memory representations are resistant to an intervening stimulus and behavioral task

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (10) ◽  
pp. 75e
Author(s):  
Grace E. Hallenbeck ◽  
Thomas C. Sprague ◽  
Masih Rahmati ◽  
Kartik K. Sreenivasan ◽  
Clayton E. Curtis
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Behavioral Task ◽  
Memory Representations

scholarly journals Neural evidence for categorical biases in working memory for location and orientation

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gi-Yeul Bae
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Computational Models ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Memory Representation ◽  
Response Preparation ◽  
Behavioral Measures ◽  
Eeg Data ◽  
Categorical Structure ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Preparation Strategy

AbstractPrevious research demonstrated that visual working memory exhibits biases with respect to the categorical structure of the stimulus space. However, a majority of those studies used behavioral measures of working memory, and it is not clear whether the working memory representations per se are influenced by the categorical structure or whether the biases arise in decision or response processes during the report. Here, I applied a multivariate decoding technique to EEG data collected during working memory tasks to determine whether neural activity associated with the working memory representation is categorically biased prior to the report. I found that the decoding of spatial working memory was biased away from the nearest cardinal location, consistent with the biases observed in the behavioral responses. In a follow-up experiment which was designed to prevent the use of a response preparation strategy, I found that the decoding still exhibited categorical biases. Together, these results provide neural evidence that working memory representations themselves are categorically biased, imposing important constraints on the computational models of working memory representations.

Processing symmetry between visual and auditory spatial representations in updating working memory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tomoki Maezawa ◽  
Jun Kawahara
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Updating ◽  
Spatial Representations ◽  
Attentional Resources ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Matrix Surface ◽  
Memory Representations

Updating spatial representations in visual and auditory working memory relies on common processes, and the modalities should compete for attentional resources. The present study examined the relative dominance of memory updating using incompatible spatial information conveyed from two different cue modalities. Participants maneuvered a designated target on a matrix surface according to visual or auditory stimuli that were simultaneously presented, to identify a terminal location. Prior to the navigation task, the relative perceptual salience of the visual cues was manipulated to be equal, superior, or inferior to the auditory cues. The results demonstrated that visual and auditory inputs competed for attentional resources such that visual/auditory guidance was impaired by incongruent cues delivered from the other modality. Although visual dominance was favored in working memory navigation on average, stimuli of relatively high salience interfered with or facilitated other stimuli regardless of modality, demonstrating the similarity of updating processes in visual and auditory spatial working memory. Furthermore, processing asymmetry can be identified during the encoding of sensory inputs into working memory representations. The present results suggest that auditory spatial updating is comparable to visual spatial updating in that salient stimuli receive a high priority when selecting inputs and are used when tracking spatial representations.

Inhibition of Visual Discrimination During a Memory-Guided Saccade Task

2004 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 660-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Ostendorf ◽  
Carsten Finke ◽  
Christoph J. Ploner
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Visual Processing ◽  
Visual Discrimination ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Tight Coupling ◽  
Spatial Cues ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Voluntary Behavior ◽  
Saccade Task ◽  
Term Maintenance

Voluntary behavior critically depends on attentional selection and short-term maintenance of perceptual information. Recent research suggests a tight coupling of both cognitive functions with visual processing being selectively enhanced by working memory representations. Here, we combined a memory-guided saccade paradigm (6-s delay) with a visual discrimination task, performed either 1,500, 2,500, or 3,500 ms after presentation of the memory cue. Contrary to what can be expected from previous studies, our results show that memory of spatial cues can transiently delay speeded discrimination of stimuli presented at remembered locations. This effect was not observed in a control experiment without memory requirements. Furthermore, delayed discrimination was dependent on the strength of actual memory representations as reflected by accuracy of memory-guided saccades. We propose an active inhibitory mechanism that counteracts facilitating effects of spatial working memory, promoting flexible orienting to novel information during maintenance of spatial memoranda for intended actions. Inhibitory delay-period activity in prefrontal cortex is a likely source for this mechanism which may be mediated by prefronto-tectal projections.

Modeling Mental Navigation in Scenes with Multiple Objects

2004 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. 1851-1872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Byrne ◽  
Suzanna Becker
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Neural Circuit ◽  
Spatial Information ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Spatial Updating ◽  
Multiple Objects ◽  
Object Locations ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Memory Representations ◽  
Experimental Findings

Various lines of evidence indicate that animals process spatial information regarding object locations differently from spatial information regarding environmental boundaries or landmarks. Following Wang and Spelke's (2002) observation that spatial updating of egocentric representations appears to lie at the heart of many navigational tasks in many species, including humans, we postulate a neural circuit that can support this computation in parietal cortex, assuming that egocentric representations of multiple objects can be maintained in prefrontal cortex in spatial working memory (not simulated here). Our method is a generalization of an earlier model by Droulez and Berthoz (1991), with extensions to support observer rotation. We can thereby simulate perspective transformation of working memory representations of object coordinates based on an egomotion signal presumed to be generated via mental navigation. This biologically plausible transformation would allow a subject to recall the locations of previously viewed objects from novel viewpoints reached via imagined, discontinuous, or disoriented displacement. Finally, we discuss how this model can account for a wide range of experimental findings regarding memory for object locations, and we present several predictions made by the model.

Working Memory and Number Sense as Predictors of Mathematical (Dis-)Ability

2015 ◽  
Vol 223 (2) ◽  
pp. 102-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evelyn H. Kroesbergen ◽  
Marloes van Dijk
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Learning Disabilities ◽  
Spatial Working Memory ◽  
Number Sense ◽  
Mathematical Learning ◽  
Visual Spatial ◽  
Mathematical Learning Disabilities ◽  
Visual Spatial Working Memory ◽  
And Mathematics

Recent research has pointed to two possible causes of mathematical (dis-)ability: working memory and number sense, although only few studies have compared the relations between working memory and mathematics and between number sense and mathematics. In this study, both constructs were studied in relation to mathematics in general, and to mathematical learning disabilities (MLD) in particular. The sample consisted of 154 children aged between 6 and 10 years, including 26 children with MLD. Children performing low on either number sense or visual-spatial working memory scored lower on math tests than children without such a weakness. Children with a double weakness scored the lowest. These results confirm the important role of both visual-spatial working memory and number sense in mathematical development.

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