Animal Physiology, Institute of Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
Neurobiology of Vocal Communication, Institute of Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
J Exp Biol. 2023 Mar 1;226(5). doi: 10.1242/jeb.245453. Epub 2023 Feb 28.
Working memory, the ability to actively maintain and manipulate information across time, is key to intelligent behavior. Because of the limited capacity of working memory, relevant information needs to be protected against distracting representations. Whether birds can resist distractors and safeguard memorized relevant information is unclear. We trained carrion crows in a delayed match-to-sample task to memorize an image while resisting other, interfering stimuli. We found that the repetition of the sample stimulus during the memory delay improved performance accuracy and accelerated reaction time relative to a reference condition with a neutral interfering stimulus. In contrast, the presentation of the image that constituted the subsequent non-match test stimulus mildly weakened performance. However, the crows' robust performance in this most demanding distractor condition indicates that sample information was actively protected from being overwritten by the distractor. These data show that crows can cognitively control and safeguard behaviorally relevant working memory contents.
工作记忆是一种在时间上主动维持和操作信息的能力，是智能行为的关键。由于工作记忆的容量有限，相关信息需要防止受到干扰的表象的影响。鸟类是否能够抵抗干扰并保护记忆中的相关信息尚不清楚。我们在延迟匹配样本任务中训练了秃鹫，以在抵抗其他干扰刺激的情况下记忆图像。我们发现，与参考条件（中性干扰刺激）相比，在记忆延迟期间重复样本刺激会提高准确性，并加快反应时间。相比之下，呈现构成后续非匹配测试刺激的图像会轻微降低性能。然而，乌鸦在这种最具挑战性的干扰条件下的稳健表现表明，样本信息被积极地保护免受干扰的覆盖。这些数据表明，乌鸦可以认知控制和保护行为相关的工作记忆内容。
