Noguchi Yasuki
Department of Psychology, Graduate School of Humanities, Kobe University, 1-1 Rokkodai-cho, Nada, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan.
NPJ Sci Learn. 2024 Feb 14;9(1):6. doi: 10.1038/s41539-024-00221-1.
When we memorize multiple words simultaneously, semantic relatedness among those words assists memory. For example, the information about "apple", "banana," and "orange" will be connected via a common concept of "fruits" and become easy to retain and recall. Neural mechanisms underlying this semantic integration in verbal working memory remain unclear. Here I used electroencephalography (EEG) and investigated neural signals when healthy human participants memorized five nouns semantically related (Sem trial) or not (NonSem trial). The regularity of oscillatory signals (8-30 Hz) during the retention period was found to be lower in NonSem than Sem trials, indicating that memorizing words unrelated to each other induced a non-harmonic (irregular) waveform in the temporal cortex. These results suggest that (i) semantic features of a word are retained as a set of neural oscillations at specific frequencies and (ii) memorizing words sharing a common semantic feature produces harmonic brain responses through a resonance or integration (sharing) of the oscillatory signals.
当我们同时记忆多个单词时，这些单词之间的语义相关性有助于记忆。例如，关于“苹果”“香蕉”和“橙子”的信息将通过“水果”这一共同概念联系起来，从而变得易于保留和回忆。言语工作记忆中这种语义整合背后的神经机制仍不清楚。在这里，我使用脑电图（EEG），研究了健康人类参与者记忆五个语义相关（语义试验）或不相关（非语义试验）名词时的神经信号。发现在非语义试验中，保持期内振荡信号（8 - 30赫兹）的规律性低于语义试验，这表明记忆相互无关的单词会在颞叶皮层诱发非谐波（不规则）波形。这些结果表明：（i）单词的语义特征作为一组特定频率的神经振荡被保留；（ii）记忆具有共同语义特征的单词会通过振荡信号的共振或整合（共享）产生谐波脑反应。
