Crows protect visual working memory against interference

Wagener, Lysann; Rinnert, Paul; Veit, Lena; Nieder, Andreas

doi:10.1242/jeb.245453

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…In these studies, only complex pictures were used as stimuli and thus, the impact of stimulus complexity has not been investigated with electrophysiological methods. However, in a behavioral study, the interfering impact on working memory was shown to be small for simple distractor stimuli and more severe for complex pictures, hinting towards differential processing of both stimulus classes 41 . To systematically investigate interfering effects of the different stimulus classes, an experiment as performed by Wright et al 42 would be needed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Working memory performance is tied to stimulus complexity

Pusch,

Packheiser,

Azizi

et al. 2023

Commun Biol

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Working memory is the cognitive capability to maintain and process information over short periods. Behavioral and computational studies have shown that visual information is associated with working memory performance. However, the underlying neural correlates remain unknown. To identify how visual information affects working memory performance, we conducted behavioral experiments in pigeons (Columba livia) and single unit recordings in the avian prefrontal analog, the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL). Complex pictures featuring luminance, spatial and color information, were associated with higher working memory performance compared to uniform gray pictures in conjunction with distinct neural coding patterns. For complex pictures, we found a multiplexed neuronal code displaying visual and value-related features that switched to a representation of the upcoming choice during a delay period. When processing gray stimuli, NCL neurons did not multiplex and exclusively represented the choice already during stimulus presentation and throughout the delay period. The prolonged representation possibly resulted in a decay of the memory trace ultimately leading to a decrease in performance. In conclusion, we found that high stimulus complexity is associated with neuronal multiplexing of the working memory representation possibly allowing a facilitated read-out of the neural code resulting in enhancement of working memory performance.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Working memory performance is tied to stimulus complexity

Pusch,

Packheiser,

Azizi

et al. 2023

Commun Biol

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“…When the cue is highly indicative of target position, the crows may learn to associate cue and target side to improve task-relevant performance, in this case detection speed. Crows have substantial working memory capacity [34][35][36][37][38] and are able to learn associations between abstract stimulus features even across modalities [39][40][41], enabling them to guide behaviour using associative stimuli. Similarly, barn owls show faster RTs to valid than to invalid visual cues with 80% validity in a sound localization task at SOAs of 500-1000 ms [6].…”

Section: Central Associative Cueingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Costs and benefits of voluntary attention in crows

Hahner

Nieder

2023

R. Soc. open sci.

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Behavioural signatures of voluntary, endogenous selective attention have been found in both mammals and birds, but the relationship between performance benefits at attended and costs at unattended locations remains unclear. We trained two carrion crows ( Corvus corone ) on a Posner-like spatial cueing task with dissociated cue and target locations, using both highly predictive and neutral central cues to compare reaction time (RT) and detection accuracy for validly, invalidly and neutrally cued targets. We found robust RT effects of predictive cueing at varying stimulus-onset asynchronies (SOA) that resulted from both advantages at cued locations and costs at un-cued locations. Both crows showed cueing effects around 15–25 ms with an early onset at 100 ms SOA, comparable to macaques. Our results provide a direct assessment of costs and benefits of voluntary attention in a bird species. They show that crows are able to guide spatial attention using associative cues, and that the processing advantage at attended locations impairs performance at unattended locations.

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Working memory performance is tied to stimulus complexity

Pusch

Packheiser

Azizi

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Working memory is the cognitive capability to maintain and process information over short periods. Recent behavioral and computational studies have shown that increased visual information of the presented stimulus material is associated with enhanced working memory performance. However, the underlying neural correlates of this association are unknown. To identify how stimuli of different visual information levels affect working memory performance, we conducted behavioral experiments and single unit recordings in the avian analog of the prefrontal cortex, the nidopallium caudolaterale (NCL). On the behavioral level, we confirmed that feature-rich complex stimuli demonstrated higher working memory performance compared to feature-poor simple stimuli. This difference was reflected by distinct neural coding patterns at the single unit level. For complex stimuli, we found a highly multiplexed neuronal code. During the sample presentation, NCL neurons initially reflected both visual and value-related features of the presented stimuli that switched to a representation of the upcoming choice during a delay period. When processing simple stimuli, NCL neurons did not multiplex and represented the upcoming choice already during stimulus presentation and throughout the delay period. It is conceivable that the maintenance of the upcoming choice in working memory was prolonged for simple stimuli due to the early choice representation. This possibly resulted in increased decay of the working memory trace ultimately leading to a decrease in performance. In conclusion, we found that increases in stimulus complexity are associated with increased neuronal multiplexing of the working memory representation. This could possibly allow for a facilitated read-out of the neural code resulting in further enhancements of working memory performance.

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Crows protect visual working memory against interference

Cited by 4 publications

References 45 publications

Working memory performance is tied to stimulus complexity

Working memory performance is tied to stimulus complexity

Costs and benefits of voluntary attention in crows

Working memory performance is tied to stimulus complexity

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