Poster No:
1121
Submission Type:
Abstract Submission
Authors:
Chia-An Tu1, Yi-Fang Hsu1
Institutions:
1National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
First Author:
Chia-An Tu
National Taiwan Normal University
Taipei, Taiwan
Co-Author:
Yi-Fang Hsu
National Taiwan Normal University
Taipei, Taiwan
Introduction:
Alpha oscillations are proposed to serve the function of pulsed inhibition to protect items in working memory from irrelevant information (Klimesch, 1999; Jensen & Mazaheri, 2010). Previous visual research showed that occipital alpha activity increased at the anticipation of strong distractors (Bonnefond & Jensen, 2012; Sghirripa et al., 2021). However, in the auditory modality, it was found that strong distractors were associated with pre-distractor decrease of alpha power in the left superior temporal gyrus (Weisz et al., 2020), which might be due to the involuntary direction of attention to strong distractors or the prioritisation of memorised information in anticipation of strong distractors. It remains unclear whether and how auditory distractors are inhibited by alpha oscillations.
Methods:
We used a modified Sternberg paradigm where we manipulated the strength of distractors (strong vs weak distractors) and the amount of distractors (more vs fewer distractors) in a block design. A total of 22 participants were presented with six primes of spoken digits (where distractors were sandwiched between targets) with an SOA of 1100 ms (i.e., encoding), a silent interval of 2200 ms (i.e., retention), and a probe of a spoken digit to which participants had to press a key to indicate whether it was one of the targets presented earlier (i.e., retrieval). While 50% of the probes called for a yes response, 50% of the probes called for a no response. Participants' response was followed by a jittered ITI of 900-1300 ms. EEG was recorded from 32 active electrodes on a Brain Products actiCAP snap according to the extended 10-20 system.
Results:
Pairwise comparisons of the ERSP suggested that distractor strength and distractor amount modulated alpha activity differently. On the one hand, alpha power increased by distractor strength (i.e., strong vs weak distractors) at the encoding phase both before and after the presentation of distractors as well as at the retention phase over right centroparietal area. On the other hand, alpha power increased by distractor amount (i.e., more vs fewer distractors) at the encoding phase before but not after the presentation of distractors beyond right centroparietal area.
Conclusions:
Strong vs weak auditory distractors seem to be inhibited by increased alpha activity in a similar way to visual distractors. Moreover, the increased alpha activity is both proactive and reactive. More vs fewer auditory distractors seem to be inhibited by increased alpha activity proactively but not reactively, which likely involves a broad network of cortical regions.
Learning and Memory:
Working Memory 1
Modeling and Analysis Methods:
EEG/MEG Modeling and Analysis 2
Perception, Attention and Motor Behavior:
Perception: Auditory/ Vestibular
Keywords:
Electroencephaolography (EEG)
Memory
Other - Alpha oscillations
1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Provide references using author date format
Klimesch, W. (1999) EEG alpha and theta oscillations reflect cognitive and memory performance: a review and analysis. Brain Research Reviews, 29(2-3), 169-195.
Jensen, O., & Mazaheri, A. (2010) Shaping functional architecture by oscillatory alpha activity: gating by inhibition. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 4:186.
Bonnefond, M., & Jensen, O. (2012) Alpha oscillations serve to protect working memory maintenance against anticipated distracters. Current Biology, 22(20), 1969-1974.
Sghirripa, S., Graetz, L., Merkin, A., Rogasch, N. C., Ridding, M. C., Semmler, J. G., & Goldsworthy, M. R. (2021) The role of alpha power in the suppression of anticipated distractors during verbal working memory. Brain Topography, 34(1), 102-109.
Weisz, N., Kraft, N. G., & Demarchi, G. (2020) Auditory cortical alpha/beta desynchronization prioritizes the representation of memory items during a retention period. eLife, 9:e55508.