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A Cognitive Paradigm to Investigate Interference in Working Memory by Distractions and Interruptions
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Dissociable neural mechanisms underlie currently-relevant, future-relevant, and discarded working memory
Elizabeth S Lorenc1,2, Annelinde R E Vandenbroucke3,4, Derek E Nee5
1University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA. elizabethlorenc@utexas.edu.
Scientific Reports
|July 10, 2020
Summary
Visual working memory (WM) uses distinct brain mechanisms to maintain attended information and suppress discarded items. Future-relevant information is not actively maintained or inhibited in these visual and frontal regions.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Visual working memory (WM) is crucial for guiding actions by managing relevant information.
- Understanding how the brain maintains future-relevant information and discards irrelevant information in WM is not fully elucidated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying the maintenance of currently-relevant and future-relevant information in WM.
- To examine how the brain discards irrelevant information from WM.
Main Methods:
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was employed.
- Multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) and computational modeling (inverted encoding models) were utilized.
Main Results:
- Currently-relevant information was maintained via representations in visual, parietal, and posterior frontal regions.
- Deliberate forgetting suppressed discarded information in early visual cortex.
- Future-relevant information was not actively maintained or inhibited in the studied regions.
Conclusions:
- Distinct neural mechanisms support the representation of currently-relevant and discarded information in WM.
- Future-relevant information processing in WM may involve different neural pathways than currently-relevant or discarded information.
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