Gresch Daniela, Behnke Larissa, van Ede Freek, Nobre Anna C, Boettcher Sage E P
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX2 6GG, United Kingdom.
Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX3 7JX, United Kingdom.
J Neurosci. 2025 Mar 17;45(18). doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2347-24.2025.
In everyday tasks, we must often shift our focus away from internal representations held in working memory to engage with perceptual events in the external world. Here, we investigated how our internal focus is reestablished following an interrupting task by tracking the reselection of visual representations and their associated action plans in working memory. Specifically, we ask whether reselection occurs for both visual and motor memory attributes and when this reselection occurs. We developed a visual-motor working-memory task in which participants were retrospectively cued to select one of two memory items before being interrupted by a perceptual discrimination task. To determine information was reselected, the memory items had distinct visual and motor attributes. To determine internal representations were reselected, the interrupting task was presented at one of three distinct time points following the retro-cue. We employed electroencephalography time-frequency analyses to track the initial selection and later reselection of visual and motor representations, as operationalized through modulations of posterior alpha (8-12 Hz) activity relative to the memorized item location (visual) and of central beta (13-30 Hz) activity relative to the required response hand (motor). Our results showed that internal visual and motor contents were concurrently reselected immediately after completing the interrupting task, rather than only when internal information was required for memory-guided behavior. Thus, following interruption, we swiftly resume our internal focus in working memory through the simultaneous reselection of memorized visual representations and their associated action plans, thereby restoring internal contents to a ready-to-use state. A key challenge for working memory is to maintain past visual representations and their associated actions while engaging with the external environment. Our cognitive system must, therefore, often juggle multiple tasks within a common time frame. Despite the ubiquity of multi-task situations in everyday life, working memory has predominantly been studied devoid of additional perceptual, attentional, and response demands during the retention interval. Here, we investigate the neural dynamics of returning to internal contents following task-relevant interruptions. Particularly, we identify of internal representations are reselected and this reselection occurs. Our findings demonstrate that both visual and motor contents are reselected immediately and in tandem after completion of an external, interrupting task.
在日常任务中，我们常常必须将注意力从工作记忆中保存的内部表征上转移开，以便与外部世界的感知事件进行交互。在此，我们通过追踪工作记忆中视觉表征及其相关行动计划的重新选择，来研究在一项干扰任务之后我们的内部注意力是如何重新建立的。具体而言，我们要问视觉和运动记忆属性是否都会发生重新选择，以及这种重新选择何时发生。我们开发了一项视觉-运动工作记忆任务，在该任务中，参与者在被一项感知辨别任务打断之前，会被回溯性地提示从两个记忆项目中选择一个。为了确定哪些信息被重新选择，记忆项目具有不同的视觉和运动属性。为了确定哪些内部表征被重新选择，干扰任务在回溯提示后的三个不同时间点之一呈现。我们采用脑电图时频分析来追踪视觉和运动表征的初始选择以及随后的重新选择，这是通过相对于记忆项目位置（视觉）的后阿尔法（8 - 12赫兹）活动调制以及相对于所需反应手（运动）的中央贝塔（13 - 30赫兹）活动调制来实现的。我们的结果表明，内部视觉和运动内容在完成干扰任务后立即同时被重新选择，而不仅仅是在记忆引导行为需要内部信息时才被重新选择。因此，在被打断之后，我们通过同时重新选择记忆的视觉表征及其相关行动计划，迅速恢复工作记忆中的内部注意力，从而将内部内容恢复到随时可用的状态。工作记忆面临的一个关键挑战是在与外部环境交互时维持过去的视觉表征及其相关行动。因此，我们的认知系统必须经常在同一时间框架内兼顾多项任务。尽管日常生活中多任务情况无处不在，但工作记忆主要是在保持间隔期间没有额外的感知、注意力和反应需求的情况下进行研究的。在此，我们研究与任务相关的干扰之后返回内部内容的神经动力学。特别是，我们确定哪些内部表征被重新选择以及这种重新选择何时发生。我们的研究结果表明，在完成外部干扰任务后，视觉和运动内容会立即且同时被重新选择。
