Intrinsic functional networks for distinct sources of error in visual working memory

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Neuroimaging
• Human Brain Function

Background:

• Visual working memory (VWM) is crucial for temporarily storing and manipulating visual information.
• VWM errors include imprecision, target-swaps, and random guesses, but their distinct neural underpinnings are unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether different types of VWM errors are associated with distinct intrinsic functional brain networks.
• To identify neural correlates of memory precision, swap errors, and random guesses in VWM.

Main Methods:

• Recruited 80 healthy adults for delayed estimation tasks and resting-state fMRI.
• Utilized mixture distribution modeling to quantify VWM precision, swap errors, and random guesses.
• Applied hierarchical clustering to estimate intrinsic functional connectivity within and between brain networks.

Main Results:

• Higher VWM memory precision correlated with increased connectivity in the frontal-opercular network and between dorsal attention and angular-gyrus-cerebellar networks.
• Coupling between frontoparietal control and cingulo-opercular networks was linked to both memory precision and random guesses.
• Distinct, yet partially overlapping, intrinsic functional networks underlie different sources of VWM performance variability.

Conclusions:

• VWM performance variability arises from distinct neural networks.
• Specific network connectivity patterns are associated with different types of VWM errors.
• Findings advance understanding of the neural basis of visual working memory and its limitations.