Temporal expectations prepare visual working memory for behavior

Wen Jin; Anna C. Nobre; Freek van Ede

doi:10.1162/jocn_a_01626

Temporal expectations prepare visual working memory for behavior

Wen Jin, Anna C. Nobre, Freek van Ede^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Cognitive Psychology

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Working memory enables us to retain past sensations in service of anticipated task demands. How we prepare for anticipated task demands during working memory retention remains poorly understood. Here, we focused on the role of time— asking how temporal expectations help prepare for ensuing memory-guided behavior. We manipulated the expected probe time in a delayed change-detection task and report that temporal expectation can have a profound influence on memory-guided behavioral performance. EEG measurements corroborated the utilization of temporal expectations: demonstrating the involvement of a classic EEG signature of temporal expectation—the contingent negative variation—in the context of working memory. We also report the influence of temporal expectations on 2 EEG signatures associated with visual working memory—the lateralization of 8-to 12-Hz alpha activity, and the contralateral delay activity. We observed a dissociation between these signatures, whereby alpha lateralization (but not the contralateral delay activity) adapted to the time of expected memory utilization. These data show how temporal expectations prepare visual working memory for behavior and shed new light on the electrophysiological markers of both temporal expectation and working memory.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	2320-2332
Number of pages	13
Journal	Journal of cognitive neuroscience
Volume	32
Issue number	12
Early online date	30 Oct 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01626
Publication status	Published - Dec 2020

Funding

This research was funded by a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award (104571/Z/14/Z) and a James S. McDonnell Foundation Understanding Human Cognition Collaborative Award (220020448) to A. C. N., a Marie Sk?odowska?Curie Fellowship from the European Commission (ACCESS2WM) to F. v. E., and by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre. The Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging is supported by core funding from the Wellcome Trust (203139/Z/16/Z). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the article.

Funders	Funder number
Wellcome Trust	104571/Z/14/Z, 203139
James S. McDonnell Foundation	220020448
NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre	203139/Z/16/Z
European Commission	ACCESS2WM

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Temporal expectations prepare visual working memory for behavior

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