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Auditory sensory memory and working memory skills: Association between frontal MMN and performance scores
L Bonetti1, N T Haumann1, E Brattico1
1Center for Music in the Brain, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, & The Royal Academy of Music, Nørrebrogade 44, Aarhus/Aalborg, Denmark.
Brain Research
|July 9, 2018
Summary
Working memory (WM) performance correlates with auditory sensory memory (SM) formation in healthy adults. Higher visual WM is linked to enhanced automatic neural responses to auditory changes, suggesting a connection between conscious and pre-attentive memory skills.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
- Human Psychology
Background:
- Memory comprises distinct sub-systems, including sensory memory (SM) and working memory (WM).
- Previous research, primarily in clinical populations, suggested links between SM and WM.
- The relationship between modality-general WM and auditory SM in healthy adults remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the association between working memory (WM) performance and auditory sensory memory (SM) formation.
- To examine modality-general WM and auditory SM indexed by magnetic mismatch negativity (MMN) in young adults.
- To explore how auditory SM relates to WM in a healthy population.
Main Methods:
- Magnetoencephalography (MEG) was used to record MMN responses to acoustic feature changes in an auditory sequence.
- 86 healthy young adults participated, undergoing MEG recordings while watching a silent film.
- Participants completed subtests of the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) for WM assessment post-MEG.
Main Results:
- Significant correlations were found between frontal MMN amplitudes (intensity and slide deviants) and WM performance.
- The relationship between MMN to intensity changes and WM was observed in all participants.
- A correlation between MMN to slide changes and WM was specific to individuals with a musical background.
Conclusions:
- Automatic neural responses to auditory changes are enhanced in individuals with superior visual working memory (WM) performance.
- Conscious WM abilities may be associated with pre-attentive neural skills for prediction and short-term storage of environmental regularities.
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