Şentürk Yağmur D, Ünver Nursima, Demircan Can, Egner Tobias, Günseli Eren
Department of Psychology, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Türkiye.
Department of Psychology, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Türkiye; Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Canada.
Cortex. 2024 Feb;171:465-480. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2023.10.024. Epub 2023 Nov 23.
Working memory (WM) describes the temporary storage of task-relevant items and procedural rules to guide action. Despite its central importance for goal-directed behavior, the interplay between WM and long-term memory (LTM) remains poorly understood. Recent studies have shown that repeated use of the same task-relevant item in WM results in a hand-off of the storage of that item to LTM, and switching to a new item reactivates WM. To further elucidate the rules governing WM-LTM interactions, we here planned to probe whether a change in task rules, independent of a switch in task-relevant items, would also lead to WM reactivation of maintained items. To this end, we used scalp-recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) data, specifically the contralateral delay activity (CDA), to track WM item storage while manipulating repetitions and changes in task rules and task-relevant items across trials in a visual WM task. We tested two rival hypotheses: If changes in task rules result in a reactivation of the target item representation, then the CDA should increase when a task change is cued even when the same target has been repeated across trials. However, if the reactivation of a task-relevant item only depends on the mnemonic availability of the item itself instead of the task it is used for, then only the changes in task-relevant items should reactivate the representations. Accordingly, the CDA amplitude should decrease for repeated task-relevant items independently of a task change. We found a larger CDA on task-switch compared to task-repeat trials, suggesting that the reactivation of task rules triggers the reactivation of task-relevant items in WM. By demonstrating that WM reactivation of LTM is interdependent for task rules and task-relevant items, this study informs our understanding of visual WM and its interplay with LTM. PREREGISTERED STAGE 1 PROTOCOL: https://osf.io/zp9e8 (date of in-principle acceptance: 19/12/2021).
工作记忆（WM）描述了对与任务相关的项目和指导行动的程序规则的临时存储。尽管它对目标导向行为至关重要，但工作记忆与长期记忆（LTM）之间的相互作用仍知之甚少。最近的研究表明，在工作记忆中重复使用相同的与任务相关的项目会导致该项目的存储转移到长期记忆中，而切换到新项目会重新激活工作记忆。为了进一步阐明控制工作记忆与长期记忆相互作用的规则，我们计划在此探究任务规则的变化（独立于与任务相关的项目的切换）是否也会导致对已存储项目的工作记忆重新激活。为此，我们使用头皮记录的脑电图（EEG）数据，特别是对侧延迟活动（CDA），在视觉工作记忆任务中跨试验操纵任务规则、与任务相关的项目的重复和变化时，跟踪工作记忆项目的存储。我们测试了两个相互竞争的假设：如果任务规则的变化导致目标项目表征的重新激活，那么当提示任务变化时，即使同一目标在试验中重复出现，对侧延迟活动也应该增加。然而，如果与任务相关的项目的重新激活仅取决于该项目本身的记忆可用性而非其用于的任务，那么只有与任务相关的项目的变化才应该重新激活表征。因此，与任务变化无关，对重复的与任务相关的项目，对侧延迟活动幅度应该降低。我们发现与任务重复试验相比，任务切换时对侧延迟活动更大，这表明任务规则的重新激活会触发工作记忆中与任务相关的项目的重新激活。通过证明长期记忆的工作记忆重新激活对于任务规则和与任务相关的项目是相互依赖的，本研究增进了我们对视觉工作记忆及其与长期记忆相互作用的理解。预注册阶段1方案：https://osf.io/zp9e8（原则上接受日期：2021年12月19日）。
