ePoster

Future encoding mechanisms in visual working memory

Reut Peled, Roy Luria
FENS Forum 2024(2024)
Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Conference

FENS Forum 2024

Messe Wien Exhibition & Congress Center, Vienna, Austria

Resources

Authors & Affiliations

Reut Peled, Roy Luria

Abstract

Visual Working Memory (VWM) is responsible for retaining and manipulating visual information. Accordingly, most of past-research has focused on investigating these properties. This study examined VWM’s ability to encode the future, specifically, representing objects and events before they appear. Methods: In Experiment 1 participants performed a change-detection task with moving objects. In the critical condition, objects moved towards each other, then met to form a new conjunction representation, while in other conditions objects moved independently. We monitored the Contralateral Delay Activity (CDA), an ERP marker for VWM capacity load, which allowed us to measure VWM capacity while the objects moved toward each other. Results: We found an increased CDA amplitude in the meeting condition relative to a condition with the same number of objects that didn’t meet, before the meeting - indicating future encoding of the upcoming conjunction objects. Experiment 2 extended Experiment 1’s results by demonstrating VWM’s ability to encode future events. This time, objects moved towards each other, then collided and bounced back. We found an increased CDA during the objects’ movement before they collided. Finally, Experiment 3 ruled out movement-trajectory expectations as the cause for the increased CDA, by showing that when objects moved toward each other, but then crossed paths without forming a novel object, no increase in the CDA was observed. Our findings revealed an increase in brain activity associated with predicting future events in VWM, supporting that VWM is integral in generating future representations - an inherent characteristic of human-cognition.

Unique ID: fens-24/future-encoding-mechanisms-visual-working-8b13cfe9