Li Qiang, Gong Dinghong, Zhang Yuan, Zhang Hongyi, Liu Guangyuan
College of Education Science, Guizhou Education University, Guiyang, China.
Office of Academic Affairs, Guizhou Education University, Guiyang, China.
Front Neurosci. 2022 Aug 1;16:935120. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2022.935120. eCollection 2022.
Tonal working memory has been less investigated by neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies and even less in terms of tonal working memory load. In this study, we analyzed the dynamic cortical processing process of tonal working memory with an original surface-space-based multivariate pattern analysis (sf-MVPA) method and found that this process constituted a bottom-up information transfer process. Then, the local cortical activity pattern, local cortical response strength, and cortical functional connectivity under different tonal working memory loads were investigated. No brain area's local activity pattern or response strength was significantly different under different memory loads. Meanwhile, the interactions between the auditory cortex (AC) and an attention control network were linearly correlated with the memory load. This finding shows that the neural mechanism underlying the tonal working memory load does not arise from changes in local activity patterns or changes in the local response strength, but from top-down attention control. Our results indicate that the implementation of tonal working memory is based on the cooperation of the bottom-up information transfer process and top-down attention control.
音调工作记忆在神经心理学和神经影像学研究中受到的关注较少，而在音调工作记忆负荷方面的研究更少。在本研究中，我们使用一种基于原始表面空间的多变量模式分析（sf-MVPA）方法分析了音调工作记忆的动态皮层处理过程，发现该过程构成了一个自下而上的信息传递过程。然后，研究了不同音调工作记忆负荷下的局部皮层活动模式、局部皮层反应强度和皮层功能连接。在不同的记忆负荷下，没有脑区的局部活动模式或反应强度存在显著差异。同时，听觉皮层（AC）与一个注意力控制网络之间的相互作用与记忆负荷呈线性相关。这一发现表明，音调工作记忆负荷背后的神经机制并非源于局部活动模式的变化或局部反应强度的变化，而是源于自上而下的注意力控制。我们的结果表明，音调工作记忆的实现基于自下而上的信息传递过程和自上而下的注意力控制的协同作用。
