Oscillatory Correlates of Control over Working Memory Gating and Updating: An EEG Study Using the Reference-back Paradigm

Rac-Lubashevsky, Rachel; Kessler, Yoav

doi:10.1162/jocn_a_01326

Cited by 34 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 81 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Third, an fMRI study showed BG activation only when switching from comparison to reference trials (Nir-Cohen, Kessler, & Egner, 2019), suggesting this particular condition indeed involves the gating mechanism in BG (Chatham & Badre, 2015;Frank et al, 2001;Hazy et al, 2006;O'Reilly, 2006). Lastly, an EEG study revealed that transitions from reference to comparison trials elicited increased midfrontal theta power (Rac-Lubashevsky & Kessler, 2018), consistent with a need for distractorresistant maintenance of WM. In summary, the referenceback paradigm is well-suited to disentangle component processes of WM.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Baseline-dependent effect of dopamine’s precursor L-tyrosine on working memory gating but not updating

Jongkees

2020

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Adaptive goal-directed behavior requires a dynamic balance between maintenance and updating within working memory (WM). This balance is controlled by an input-gating mechanism implemented by dopamine in the basal ganglia. Given that dopaminergic manipulations can modulate performance on WM-related tasks, it is important to gain mechanistic insight into whether such manipulations differentially affect updating (i.e., encoding and removal) and the closely-related gate opening/closing processes that respectively enable/prevent updating. To clarify this issue, 2.0 g of dopamine's precursor L-tyrosine was administered to healthy young adults (N = 45) in a double-blind, placebo-controlled, within-subjects study. WM processes were empirically distinguished using the reference-back paradigm, which isolates performance related to updating, gate opening, and gate closing. L-tyrosine had a selective, baseline-dependent effect only on gate opening, which was evidenced by markedly reduced variance across subjects in gate opening performance in the L-tyrosine compared with the placebo condition, whereas the whole-sample average performance did not differ between conditions. This indicates a pattern of results whereby low-performing subjects improved, whereas high-performing subjects were impaired on L-tyrosine. Importantly, this inverted U-shaped pattern was not explained by regression to the mean. These results are consistent with an inverted-U relationship between dopamine and WM, and they indicate that updating and gating are differentially affected by a dopaminergic manipulation. This highlights the importance of distinguishing these processes when studying WM, for example, in the context of WM deficits in disorders with a dopaminergic pathophysiology.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Baseline-dependent effect of dopamine’s precursor L-tyrosine on working memory gating but not updating

Jongkees

2020

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Therefore, incongruent conclusions generate more information to be updated in the WM, producing larger anterior delta power than congruent conclusions; T− needs more WM to be updated than S−, producing larger anterior delta power; and T+ needs less WM to be updated than S+, producing less anterior delta power. These speculations are supported by Rac-Lubashevsky and Kessler (2018), who suggested that WM updating is related to an increase in anterior delta power.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…In phase-locked power, the premise monotonicity effect during semantic category-based induction was revealed by delta power in the 100–350 ms time window. In the cognitive domain, delta oscillations are related to signal detection, decision-making, attention, inhibition, or working memory (Spironelli and Angrilli, 2010; Putman, 2011; Leszczyński et al, 2015; Rac-Lubashevsky and Kessler, 2018; reviews, Knyazev, 2012; Harmony, 2013; Güntekin and Başar, 2016).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the present study, more WM needs to be updated in T arguments with incongruent conclusion (T−) than in S arguments with incongruent conclusion (S−), because of the increased conceptual confliction during T−; and less WM needs to be updated in T arguments with congruent conclusion (T+) than in S arguments with congruent conclusion (S+), because of the increased conceptual fluency. WM updating is related to increased delta power (Harmony, 2013; Rac-Lubashevsky and Kessler, 2018), and thus we predicted that T− would evoke larger delta power than S−, while T+ would evoke smaller delta power than S+. In addition, cognitive processing would be facilitated by inhibiting stimulus-based bottom-up processing demands during T arguments compared with S arguments, thus producing increased subjectively perceived confidence.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Neural Oscillation Profiles of a Premise Monotonicity Effect During Semantic Category-Based Induction

Sun

Xiao

Long

2019

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A premise monotonicity effect during category-based induction is a robust effect, in which participants are more likely to generalize properties shared by many instances rather than those shared by few instances. Previous studies have shown the event-related potentials (ERPs) elicited by this effect. However, the neural oscillations in the brain underlying this effect are not well known, and such oscillations can convey task-related cognitive processing information which is lost in traditional ERP analysis. In the present study, the phase-locked and non-phase-locked power of neural oscillations related to this effect were measured by manipulating the premise sample size [single (S) vs. two (T)] in a semantic category-based induction task. For phase-locked power, the results illustrated that the premise monotonicity effect was revealed by anterior delta power, suggesting differences in working memory updating. The results also illustrated that T arguments evoked larger posterior theta-alpha power than S arguments, suggesting that T arguments led to enhanced subjectively perceived inductive confidence than S arguments. For non-phase-locked power, the results illustrated that the premise monotonicity effect was indicated by anterior theta power, suggesting that the differences in sample size were related to a change in the need for cognitive control and the implementation of adaptive cognitive control. Moreover, the results illustrated that the premise monotonicity effect was revealed by alpha-beta power, which suggested the unification of sentence and inference-driven information. Therefore, the neural oscillation profiles of the premise monotonicity effect during semantic category-based induction were elucidated, and supported the connectionist models of category-based induction.

show abstract

“…However, meditators did show a higher proportion of participants with fronto-midline theta peaks above the 1/f aperiodic activity. Theta activity has been related to attentional function, particularly cognitive control (Cavanagh & Frank, 2014; Rac-Lubashevsky & Kessler, 2018; Sauseng et al, 2010; Sauseng et al, 2007), and previous research has indicated that meditators show increases in theta activity (Kerr et al, 2013; Lagopoulos et al, 2009; Tang et al, 2009). As such, it may be that meditation practice enabled a higher proportion of the meditation group to generate theta oscillations to maintain attention on the task during the WM delay period.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mindfulness meditators show enhanced working memory performance concurrent with different brain region engagement patterns during recall

Bailey

Freedman

Raj

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mindfulness meditation has been shown to improve working memory (WM). However, the altered brain activity underpinning these improvements is underexplored. In non-meditating individuals, modulation of theta and alpha oscillations and 1/f aperiodic activity during WM has been found to be related to WM performance. Resting theta and alpha oscillations have been found to differ in meditators, but WM related oscillation changes and 1/f aperiodic activity have not yet been examined. Additionally, WM event-related-potentials (ERPs) are modulated by attention, which is also enhanced by meditation, so these neural measures are candidates for exploring neural activity underpinning WM improvement in meditators. We recorded EEG from 29 controls and 29 meditators during a modified Sternberg WM task and compared theta, alpha, and 1/f aperiodic activity during the WM delay, and ERPs time-locked to the WM probe. Meditators responded more accurately (p = 0.008, Cohen’s d = 0.688). Meditators also showed different ERP distributions with earlier left-temporal activation and more frontal distribution of activity (FDR-p = 0.0186, η2 = 0.0903), as well as a reduction in overall neural response strength (FDR-p = 0.0098, η2 = 0.1251). While a higher proportion of meditators showed theta oscillations during the WM delay, no other differences in theta, alpha or 1/f aperiodic activity were present. These results suggest that increased WM performance in meditators might not be the result of higher amplitudes of typical WM activity, but instead due to an alternative neural strategy during WM decision making, which may allow more accurate responses with less neural activation. Highlights Long term mindfulness meditators showed improved working memory (WM) accuracy This was concurrent with earlier left temporal activation following probe stimuli As well as a more frontal distribution and reduced overall neural response strength No oscillation differences were present in the working memory delay period Improved WM from altered neural strategy rather than increased neural activity

show abstract

Oscillatory Correlates of Control over Working Memory Gating and Updating: An EEG Study Using the Reference-back Paradigm

Cited by 34 publications

References 81 publications

Baseline-dependent effect of dopamine’s precursor L-tyrosine on working memory gating but not updating

Baseline-dependent effect of dopamine’s precursor L-tyrosine on working memory gating but not updating

Neural Oscillation Profiles of a Premise Monotonicity Effect During Semantic Category-Based Induction

Mindfulness meditators show enhanced working memory performance concurrent with different brain region engagement patterns during recall

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About