Boettcher Sage E P, Gresch Daniela, Nobre Anna C, van Ede Freek
Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Sci Adv. 2021 Mar 24;7(13). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abe8212. Print 2021 Mar.
Working memory serves as the buffer between past sensations and future behavior, making it vital to understand not only how we encode and retain sensory information in memory but also how we plan for its upcoming use. We ask when prospective action goals emerge alongside the encoding and retention of visual information in working memory. We show that prospective action plans do not emerge gradually during memory delays but are brought into memory early, in tandem with sensory encoding. This action encoding (i) precedes a second stage of action preparation that adapts to the time of expected memory utilization, (ii) occurs even ahead of an intervening motor task, and (iii) predicts visual memory-guided behavior several seconds later. By bringing prospective action plans into working memory at an early stage, the brain creates a dual (visual-motor) memory code that can make memories more effective and robust for serving ensuing behavior.
工作记忆充当过去感觉与未来行为之间的缓冲器，这使得不仅理解我们如何在记忆中编码和保留感官信息，而且理解我们如何为其即将到来的使用进行规划变得至关重要。我们探讨前瞻性行动目标是何时与工作记忆中视觉信息的编码和保留同时出现的。我们表明，前瞻性行动计划并非在记忆延迟期间逐渐形成，而是与感官编码同时在早期就被纳入记忆。这种行动编码：（i）先于适应预期记忆利用时间的行动准备的第二阶段；（ii）甚至在中间的运动任务之前就发生；（iii）预测数秒后的视觉记忆引导行为。通过在早期将前瞻性行动计划纳入工作记忆，大脑创建了一种双重（视觉 - 运动）记忆代码，这种代码可以使记忆对于服务后续行为更有效且更稳定。
