Oscillatory Control over Representational States in Working Memory

Vries, Ingmar E.J. de; Slagter, Heleen A.; Olivers, Christian N. L.

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2019.11.006

Cited by 139 publications

(142 citation statements)

References 136 publications

(195 reference statements)

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“…Here, we showed the modulation of alpha lateralisation across somatosensory and parieto-occipital regions when the participants directed attention to the relevant responses according to the comparisons between the tested and maintained information. These results support the notion that alpha lateralisation may reflect a general mechanism that determines the engagement and disengagement of the cortices according to the task relevancy across various sensory modalities and controls the representational states of WM (de Vries, Slagter, & Olivers, 2020;Klimesch, 2012;Kuo, Li, Lin, Hu, & Yeh, 2017;van Ede, 2018;Wallis, Stokes, Cousijn, Woolrich, & Nobre, 2015). We showed that temporal predictability can optimise attentional prioritisation and the selection of responses, thereby bringing alpha lateralisation forward when the probe onset was highly predictable.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Temporal expectation modulates the neural dynamics of delayed responses to working memory representations

Chen

Kuo

2020

Preprint

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Temporal expectation can induce anticipatory attention to enhance perceptual processing and optimise behaviours. However, it remains unexplored whether temporal expectation benefits delayed responses to information maintained in working memory (WM) and the underlying neural dynamics that support the benefits. Here we addressed these issues in behavioural and electroencephalography (EEG) experiments. Participants performed a rotation discrimination WM task. Temporal expectation was manipulated by varying the predictability for when a test probe would occur after a delay interval. We first demonstrated that temporal predictability benefited WM performance. Our EEG results showed decreased alpha power over the left posterior brain regions during the delay interval for high than low predictability trials.Importantly, we found earlier enhancement of the lateralised alpha power and the lateralised readiness potential for high than low predictability trials when WM contents were accessed for responses during the probe period. Finally, we found concurrent selection and preparation for responses when the probe onset was predictable but motor preparation lagged behind response selection when the probe onset was more variable. Together, this study provides new insights into the proactive, dynamic nature of the anticipatory deployment of attention in guiding WM maintenance and delayed responses.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Temporal expectation modulates the neural dynamics of delayed responses to working memory representations

Chen

Kuo

2020

Preprint

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“…Accordingly, shifts of attention toward a lateralized target resulted in a contralateral decrease in alpha power, whereas shifting attention away from a lateralized distractor resulted in a contralateral increase in alpha power. The pattern of results support the notion that alpha lateralization mediates the task-dependent prioritization and de-prioritization of items within working memory 36 . In addition, we strengthen the previous claim that auditory alpha lateralization is absent when spatial information is task-irrelevant 8,44 .…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Accordingly, both behavioral as well as neural evidence question the notion that an active inhibition mechanism completely deteriorates the non-cued item: On a behavioral level, using a series of cues, it has been shown that originally cued and then defocused items remain strengthened and result in faster and more accurate performance compared to trials in which a previously un-cued item (and thus "un-strengthened" item) is probed. In addition, EEG studies cast doubt on whether alpha lateralization actually mediates potential distractor exclusion effects 35,36 : For instance, Noonan and colleagues failed to find a lateralization of alpha power in response to a pre-cue indicating the location of an upcoming distractor, although, on the behavioral level, clear reaction time and accuracy improvements provide evidence for effective distractor exclusion (see also de Vries et al 37 ). However, it should be considered that the latter findings refer to anticipatory suppression of distractors in the visual domain, whereas the present study deals with the inhibition of previously relevant information within auditory working memory that subsequently becomes irrelevant.…”

Section: Alpha Lateralization As a Proxy Of Target Prioritization Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This supports the notion that working memory is a highly-flexible system that allows for the dynamic adaption to changing task demands by means of a dual-control mechanism. Alpha oscillations may serve as the underlying substrate that allows for flexible control over the state of current working memory representations, switching between prioritized and deprioritized representations depending on their current relevance for the task 36 . That the flexible prioritization and deprioritization of working memory representation may, in fact, be mediated by two independent mechanisms, has been supported by a number of recent studies: Schneider et al 6 independently manipulated the meaning of a retro-cue such that it either indicated the to-beremembered (remember-cue) or the to-be-forgotten (forget-cue) item(s).…”

Section: A Dual Mechanism Underlying Alpha Lateralizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A dual mechanism underlying retroactive shifts of auditory spatial attention: dissociating target- and distractor-related modulations of alpha lateralization

Klatt

Getzmann

Begau

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Attention can be allocated to mental representations to select information from working memory. To date, it remains ambiguous whether such retroactive shifts of attention involve the inhibition of irrelevant information or the prioritization of relevant information.Investigating asymmetries in posterior alpha-band oscillations during an auditory retroactive cueing task, we aimed at differentiating those mechanisms. Participants were cued to attend two out of three sounds in an upcoming sound array. Importantly, the resulting working memory representation contained one laterally and one centrally presented item. A centrally presented retro-cue then indicated the lateral, the central, or both items as further relevant for the task (comparing the cued item(s) to a memory probe). Time-frequency analysis revealed opposing patterns of alpha lateralization depending on target eccentricity: A contralateral decrease in alpha power in target lateral trials indicated the involvement of target prioritization. A contralateral increase in alpha power when the central item remained relevant (distractor lateral trials) suggested the de-prioritization of irrelevant information. No lateralization was observed when both items remained relevant, supporting the notion that auditory alpha lateralization is restricted to situations in which spatial information is taskrelevant. Altogether, the data demonstrate that retroactive attentional deployment involves excitatory and inhibitory control mechanisms.

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“…The observed activity patterns were in the alpha and beta ranges, frequency ranges that are critical for maintenance of visual information. Alpha enhancement likely reflects inhibition of information that could interfere with maintenance, while beta activity is related to controlling the information that is being actively maintained 51 . The early delay activity was followed by a period of desynchronous activity for the remainder of the delay which may suggest preparation for the upcoming response 52 .…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does rehearsal matter? Left anterior temporal alpha and theta band changes correlate with the beneficial effects of rehearsal on working memory

Plaska

Ellmore

2019

Preprint

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There is a rich behavioral literature on articulatory rehearsal for verbal stimuli, suggesting that rehearsal may facilitate memory, but few studies have examined the benefits for visual stimuli.Neural delay period studies have largely failed to control for the use of maintenance strategies, which make activity patterns during maintenance difficult to interpret. Forty-four participants completed a modified Sternberg Task with either novel scenes (NS) that contained semantic information or phase-scrambled scenes (SS) that lacked it. Participants were instructed to generate a descriptive label and covertly rehearse (CR) or suppress (AS, i.e., repeat "the") during the delay period. Artifact-corrected delay period activity was compared as a function of maintenance strategy (CR vs. AS) and stimulus type (NS vs. SS). Performance on the working memory task for NS revealed that CR neither provided a short-nor long-term behavioral advantage on the delayed recognition task for CR. Interestingly, when task difficulty increased with SS, there was both a significant short-term as well as a long-term advantage. Comparison of sensor-level delay activity during the maintenance phase for NS and SS revealed two distinct patterns of neural activity for NS; there was greater amplitude in the beta range in the right parietal and centromedial regions. For SS, across all sensors during CR, the higher amplitude was observed in the upper alpha and beta ranges. The results suggest that rehearsal increased subsequent memory with SS but not NS. Moreover, neural modulation during the delay period depends on both task difficulty and maintenance strategy.

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Oscillatory Control over Representational States in Working Memory

Cited by 139 publications

References 136 publications

Temporal expectation modulates the neural dynamics of delayed responses to working memory representations

Temporal expectation modulates the neural dynamics of delayed responses to working memory representations

A dual mechanism underlying retroactive shifts of auditory spatial attention: dissociating target- and distractor-related modulations of alpha lateralization

Does rehearsal matter? Left anterior temporal alpha and theta band changes correlate with the beneficial effects of rehearsal on working memory

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