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Updated: Jun 8, 2025
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Evaluation of Hemisphere Lateralization with Bilateral Local Field Potential Recording in Secondary Motor Cortex of Mice
Published on: July 31, 2019
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Alpha Traveling Waves during Working Memory: Disentangling Bottom-Up Gating and Top-Down Gain Control
Yifan Zeng1, Paul Sauseng2, Andrea Alamia3,4
1Department of Psychology, Universität Zürich, Zürich 8050, Switzerland yifan.zeng@psychologie.uzh.ch andrea.alamia@cnrs.fr.
Summary
Alpha traveling waves in the brain show distinct patterns related to working memory. Forward waves increase with distractors, while backward waves decrease with targets, suggesting dual inhibitory processes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Electrophysiology
Background:
- Previous research links alpha oscillations to working memory inhibition.
- The top-down versus bottom-up nature of this inhibition remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of alpha traveling waves during working memory.
- To differentiate between top-down and bottom-up inhibitory mechanisms in working memory.
Main Methods:
- Reanalysis of two existing EEG datasets (N=180) from visual delayed match-to-sample tasks.
- Analysis focused on anterior-posterior alpha wave propagation during memory retention.
- Manipulation of distractor load and memory set size.
Main Results:
- Increased alpha forward waves correlated with higher distractor load.
- Increased forward waves and decreased backward waves were observed with larger memory set sizes.
- Lateralization effects showed forward waves increased contralateral to distractors, and backward waves decreased contralateral to targets.
Conclusions:
- Findings suggest a dissociation between goal-relevant (targets) and goal-irrelevant (distractors) signals.
- Alpha forward waves may reflect bottom-up gating influenced by distractors.
- Alpha backward waves might indicate top-down gain control over visual areas.
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