Visual Working Memory Storage Recruits Sensory Processing Areas

Gayet, Surya; Paffen, Chris; Stigchel, Stefan Van der

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2017.09.011

Cited by 67 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…VSTM load was also found to reduce the retinotopic response to a contrast increment presented during the maintenance delay in early visual cortex areas V1 to V3 (Konstantinou, Bahrami, Rees, & Lavie, 2012). These effects are in line with the sensory recruitment hypothesis (e.g., Serences, Ester, Vogel, & Awh, 2009; for more recent formulations, see Gayet, Paffen, & Van der Stigchel, 2018;Scimeca, Kiyonaga, & D'Esposito, 2018), which suggests that the brain network responsible for maintenance of visual information in memory involves the same sensory brain areas as those involved in perceptual encoding. The reduction of the V1 to V3 response to stimuli and accompanied findings of reduced detection sensitivity during the maintenance interval in conditions of higher VSTM load can be taken to reflect that loading VSTM depletes the sensory resources required for perceptual representations of incoming stimuli during maintenance.…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Effects of visual short-term memory load and attentional demand on the contrast response function

Konstantinou

Lavie

2020

Journal of Vision

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Visual short-term memory (VSTM) load leads to impaired perception during maintenance. Here, we fitted the contrast response function to psychometric orientation discrimination data while also varying attention demand during maintenance to investigate: (1) whether VSTM load effects on perception are mediated by a modulation of the contrast threshold, consistent with contrast gain accounts, or by the function asymptote (1 lapse rate), consistent with response gain accounts; and (2) whether the VSTM load effects on the contrast response function depend on the availability of attentional resources. We manipulated VSTM load via the number of items in the memory set in a color and location VSTM task and assessed the contrast response function for an orientation discrimination task during maintenance. Attention demand was varied through spatial cuing of the orientation stimulus. Higher VSTM load increased the estimated contrast threshold of the contrast response function without affecting the estimated asymptote, but only when the discrimination task demanded attention. When attentional demand was reduced (in the cued conditions), the VSTM load effects on the contrast threshold were eliminated. The results suggest that VSTM load reduces perceptual sensitivity by increasing contrast thresholds, suggestive of a contrast gain modulation mechanism, as long as the perceptual discrimination task demands attention. These findings support recent claims that attentional resources are shared between perception and VSTM maintenance processes.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 78%

Effects of visual short-term memory load and attentional demand on the contrast response function

Konstantinou

Lavie

2020

Journal of Vision

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“…The GNW theory associates consciousness with maintaining information online independently of stimulus presence, and thus connects it to working memory (WM), the dedicated memory system that temporarily stores information and interfaces between perception, long-term memory and action [58 -62]. The neural basis of WM consists of a distributed network with a core fronto-parietal part that is typically activated during most WM tasks [63], and stimulus-and taskspecific sensorimotor areas that are recruited on the basis of the actual stimulus-set and actual task demands (for reviews, see [64][65][66][67]; for recent criticisms of the recruitment model, see [68][69][70]; see also [71][72][73]). The dlPFC is part of the fronto-parietal core network [63], and has been argued to be necessary for intact WM functions [64,67,74 -76].…”

Section: (D) Does the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Play A Crucial Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Instead, the lateral prefrontal cortex seems to represent abstract high-level information, like object categories [80,81], task-and trial-relevant information [78,82,83] and load-dependent effects [63]. According to these studies, dlPFC is crucial for being able to act on the stimulus in a way that conforms to task requirements, but not so much crucial for maintaining stimulus-related information (for reviews, see [65,84]; for opposing findings, see [69,85]; for replies, see [71,72]). This is problematic from the perspective of the argument from dlPFC hypoactivity as maintaining stimulus-specific information such that they are available for reporting is the relevant sense of cognitive access that the access versus no-access debate relies on [2,86 -89].…”

Section: (D) Does the Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex Play A Crucial Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dream experiences and the neural correlates of perceptual consciousness and cognitive access

Fazekas

Németh

2018

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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This paper approaches the debate whether perceptual consciousness requires cognitive access from the perspective of dream studies, and investigates what kind of findings could support the opposing views of this debate. Two kinds of arguments are discussed, one that claims that the hypoactivity of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in rapid eye movement sleep is directly relevant, and another that proposes that locating the neural correlates of dream experiences can indirectly inform the debate. It is argued that under closer reflection, neither the classical claim about dorsolateral prefrontal cortex hypoactivity nor the more recent emphasis on general posterior hot zone activity during dreaming stand up to scrutiny. White dreaming is identified as the phenomenon that, nevertheless, holds the most promise to have an impact on the debate. Going beyond the topic if studying dreams can contribute to this debate, it is argued that cognitive access is not a monolithic phenomenon, and its neural correlates are not well understood. There seems to be a relevant form of cognitive access that can operate in the absence of activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and maybe also in the whole frontal region. If so, then exclusive posterior activation during conscious experiences might very well be compatible with the hypothesis that perceptual consciousness requires cognitive access.This article is part of the theme issue 'Perceptual consciousness and cognitive access'.

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“…The present results provide a novel approach to the ongoing debate on the extent to which sensory processing areas are essential for the maintenance of information in WM (Gayet, Paffen, & Van der Stigchel, 2018;Scimeca et al, 2018;Xu, 2018). This is usually investigated by looking for the presence of WM-specific delay activity in the visual cortex in visual WM tasks (Bettencourt & Xu, 2016;Harrison & Tong, 2009), where null-results are interpreted as evidence against the involvement of specific brain regions, which is inherently problematic (Ester, Rademaker, & Sprague, 2016), and by which non-active WM states are not considered.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Impulse responses reveal unimodal and bimodal access to visual and auditory working memory

Wolff

Kandemir

Stokes³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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It is unclear to what extent sensory processing areas are involved in the maintenance of sensory information in working memory (WM). Previous studies have thus far relied on finding neural activity in the corresponding sensory cortices, neglecting potential activitysilent mechanisms such as connectivity-dependent encoding. It has recently been found that visual stimulation during visual WM maintenance reveals WM-dependent changes through a bottom-up neural response. Here, we test whether this impulse response is uniquely visual and sensory-specific. Human participants (both sexes) completed visual and auditory WM tasks while electroencephalography was recorded. During the maintenance period, the WM network was perturbed serially with fixed and task-neutral auditory and visual stimuli. We show that a neutral auditory impulse-stimulus presented during the maintenance of a pure tone resulted in a WM-dependent neural response, providing evidence for the auditory counterpart to the visual WM findings reported previously. Interestingly, visual stimulation also resulted in an auditory WM-dependent impulse response, implicating the visual cortex in the maintenance of auditory information, either directly, or indirectly as a pathway to the neural auditory WM representations elsewhere. In contrast, during visual WM maintenance only the impulse response to visual stimulation was content-specific, suggesting that visual information is maintained in a sensory-specific neural network, separated from auditory processing areas. Significance StatementWorking memory is a crucial component of intelligent, adaptive behaviour. Our understanding of the neural mechanisms that support it has recently shifted: rather than being dependent on an unbroken chain of neural activity, working memory may rely on transient changes in neuronal connectivity, which can be maintained efficiently in activity-silent brain states. Previous work using a visual impulse stimulus to perturb the memory network has implicated such silent states in the retention of line orientations in visual working memory. Here, we show that auditory working memory similarly retains auditory information. We also observed a sensory-specific impulse response in visual working memory, while auditory memory responded bi-modally to both visual and auditory impulses, possibly reflecting visual dominance of working memory.

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Visual Working Memory Storage Recruits Sensory Processing Areas

Cited by 67 publications

References 12 publications

Effects of visual short-term memory load and attentional demand on the contrast response function

Effects of visual short-term memory load and attentional demand on the contrast response function

Dream experiences and the neural correlates of perceptual consciousness and cognitive access

Impulse responses reveal unimodal and bimodal access to visual and auditory working memory

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