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Tracking Real-Time Changes in Working Memory Updating and Gating with the Event-Based Eye-Blink Rate
Rachel Rac-Lubashevsky1, Heleen A Slagter2, Yoav Kessler3
1Rachel Rac-Lubashevsky, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel. ratz@post.bgu.ac.il.
Scientific Reports
|June 2, 2017
Summary
This study reveals that increased eye blinks signal working memory (WM) updating and gate switching, potentially reflecting dopamine activity. This inexpensive measure tracks WM demands and dopamine function.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuropsychology
- Dopamine Research
Background:
- Effective working memory (WM) relies on gating mechanisms balancing maintenance and updating.
- Striatal dopamine activity is hypothesized to play a role in these WM processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between cognitive gating, updating, and dopamine activity using event-based eye-blink rate (ebEBR).
- To examine how gating and updating facilitate flexible WM content manipulation and the role of dopamine.
Main Methods:
- Utilized the reference-back task with independently manipulated updating and gating demands.
- Tracked real-time changes in event-based eye-blink rate (ebEBR) as a proxy for phasic striatal dopamine activity.
Main Results:
- Increased ebEBR was observed during trials requiring WM updating and gate switching.
- Gate opening (updating mode) was found to be more stimulus-driven and retroactive than gate closing (maintenance mode), which was context-driven.
- Findings support the prefrontal cortex-basal ganglia WM model by linking updating and gating to striatal dopaminergic activity.
Conclusions:
- The ebEBR serves as a viable, non-invasive tool to monitor WM demands and potential striatal dopamine fluctuations.
- This research provides insights into the neural mechanisms underlying working memory flexibility and dopamine's role.
