Neural evidence for modality-independent storage in working memory.

Working memory (WM) is a core component of intellectual ability. Traditional behavioral accounts have argued that there remain distinct memory systems based on the type and sensory modality of information being stored. However, more recent work has provided evidence for a class of neural activity that indexes the number of visual items stored in a content-independent fashion.

Storage in Visual Working Memory Recruits a Content-Independent Pointer System.

Past work has shown that storage in working memory elicits stimulus-specific neural activity that tracks the stored content. Here, we present evidence for a distinct class of load-sensitive neural activity that indexes items without representing their contents per se. We recorded electroencephalogram (EEG) activity while adult human subjects stored varying numbers of items in visual working memory.

Perceptual Grouping Reveals Distinct Roles for Sustained Slow Wave Activity and Alpha Oscillations in Working Memory.

Multiple neural signals have been found to track the number of items stored in working memory (WM). These signals include oscillatory activity in the alpha band and slow-wave components in human EEG, both of which vary with storage loads and predict individual differences in WM capacity. However, recent evidence suggests that these two signals play distinct roles in spatial attention and item-based storage in WM.

Irrelevant learned reward associations disrupt voluntary spatial attention.

Attention can be guided involuntarily by physical salience and by non-salient, previously learned reward associations that are currently task-irrelevant. Attention can be guided voluntarily by current goals and expectations. The current study examined, in two experiments, whether irrelevant reward associations could disrupt current, goal-driven, voluntary attention.