Working memory load improves early stages of independent visual processing.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_FF48D32FA1C3
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Working memory load improves early stages of independent visual processing.
Journal
Neuropsychologia
Author(s)
Cocchi L., Toepel U., De Lucia M., Martuzzi R., Wood S.J., Carter O., Murray M.M.
ISSN
1873-3514[electronic], 0028-3932[linking]
Publication state
Published
Issued date
2011
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
49
Number
1
Pages
92-102
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Increasing evidence suggests that working memory and perceptual processes are dynamically interrelated due to modulating activity in overlapping brain networks. However, the direct influence of working memory on the spatio-temporal brain dynamics of behaviorally relevant intervening information remains unclear. To investigate this issue, subjects performed a visual proximity grid perception task under three different visual-spatial working memory (VSWM) load conditions. VSWM load was manipulated by asking subjects to memorize the spatial locations of 6 or 3 disks. The grid was always presented between the encoding and recognition of the disk pattern. As a baseline condition, grid stimuli were presented without a VSWM context. VSWM load altered both perceptual performance and neural networks active during intervening grid encoding. Participants performed faster and more accurately on a challenging perceptual task under high VSWM load as compared to the low load and the baseline condition. Visual evoked potential (VEP) analyses identified changes in the configuration of the underlying sources in one particular period occurring 160-190 ms post-stimulus onset. Source analyses further showed an occipito-parietal down-regulation concurrent to the increased involvement of temporal and frontal resources in the high VSWM context. Together, these data suggest that cognitive control mechanisms supporting working memory may selectively enhance concurrent visual processing related to an independent goal. More broadly, our findings are in line with theoretical models implicating the engagement of frontal regions in synchronizing and optimizing mnemonic and perceptual resources towards multiple goals.
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
01/02/2011 23:23
Last modification date
20/08/2019 17:29
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