Working memory and attention: Two sides of the same neural coin? Data (IMAGE)
Caption
Working memory and attention: Two sides of the same neural coin? Experiments Credit: Courtesy of Timothy Buschman and Matthew Panichello Caption: Princeton neuroscientists Timothy Buschman and Matthew Panichello have discovered that attention and working memory are much more closely connected than most modern cognitive scientists realized. They performed two experiments in which monkeys were shown two color blocks and a symbol that directed them to select the top one (a circle or an upward slanted line) or the bottom one (a triangle or a downward slanted line). They then matched the selected color to its spot on the color wheel. This image shows data from the first experiment: The spectrum of possible colors for the two blocks (upper and lower) are represented as a ring in the activity of neurons in the prefrontal cortex. When the animal is remembering both items (before selecting the target), these rings lie on separate "planes" within the brain. These planes are perpendicular to one another to keep the items separate. When one of the items is selected, the color rings rotate in order to align the colors for either item. This allows the brain to "read out" the color of the selected item, regardless of whether it was originally the upper or lower item.
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Courtesy of the Buschman Lab
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