Abstract
In everyday life, the brain is bombarded with a multitude of concurrent and competing stimuli. Only some of these enter consciousness and memory. Attention selects relevant signals for in-depth processing depending on current goals, but also on the intrinsic properties of stimuli. We combined behavior, computational modeling, and functional imaging to investigate mechanisms supporting access to memorybased on intrinsic sensory properties. During fMRI scanning,humansubjects were presented with pictures of naturalistic scenes that entailed high levels of competition between possible target objects. Following a retention interval of 8 s, participants judged the location (same/different) of a target object extracted from the initial scene. We found that memory performance at retrieval increased with increasing object salience at encoding, indicating a "prior entry" for salient information. fMRI analyses revealed encoding-related activation in the posterior parietal cortex, selectively for salient objects that were later remembered. Moreover, parietal cortex showed increased functional coupling with the medial-temporal lobe, for remembered objects only. These findings reveal a parietotemporal circuit that integrates available sensory cues (based on attention-grabbing saliency signals) and current memory requirements (storing objects' locations) to encode object-related spatial information in working memory.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4110-4117 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Neuroscience |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue number | 9 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Feb 27 2013 |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Neuroscience(all)
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Visual salience improves spatial working memory via enhanced parieto-temporal functional connectivity. / Santangelo, Valerio; Macaluso, Emiliano.
In: Journal of Neuroscience, Vol. 33, No. 9, 27.02.2013, p. 4110-4117.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Visual salience improves spatial working memory via enhanced parieto-temporal functional connectivity
AU - Santangelo, Valerio
AU - Macaluso, Emiliano
PY - 2013/2/27
Y1 - 2013/2/27
N2 - In everyday life, the brain is bombarded with a multitude of concurrent and competing stimuli. Only some of these enter consciousness and memory. Attention selects relevant signals for in-depth processing depending on current goals, but also on the intrinsic properties of stimuli. We combined behavior, computational modeling, and functional imaging to investigate mechanisms supporting access to memorybased on intrinsic sensory properties. During fMRI scanning,humansubjects were presented with pictures of naturalistic scenes that entailed high levels of competition between possible target objects. Following a retention interval of 8 s, participants judged the location (same/different) of a target object extracted from the initial scene. We found that memory performance at retrieval increased with increasing object salience at encoding, indicating a "prior entry" for salient information. fMRI analyses revealed encoding-related activation in the posterior parietal cortex, selectively for salient objects that were later remembered. Moreover, parietal cortex showed increased functional coupling with the medial-temporal lobe, for remembered objects only. These findings reveal a parietotemporal circuit that integrates available sensory cues (based on attention-grabbing saliency signals) and current memory requirements (storing objects' locations) to encode object-related spatial information in working memory.
AB - In everyday life, the brain is bombarded with a multitude of concurrent and competing stimuli. Only some of these enter consciousness and memory. Attention selects relevant signals for in-depth processing depending on current goals, but also on the intrinsic properties of stimuli. We combined behavior, computational modeling, and functional imaging to investigate mechanisms supporting access to memorybased on intrinsic sensory properties. During fMRI scanning,humansubjects were presented with pictures of naturalistic scenes that entailed high levels of competition between possible target objects. Following a retention interval of 8 s, participants judged the location (same/different) of a target object extracted from the initial scene. We found that memory performance at retrieval increased with increasing object salience at encoding, indicating a "prior entry" for salient information. fMRI analyses revealed encoding-related activation in the posterior parietal cortex, selectively for salient objects that were later remembered. Moreover, parietal cortex showed increased functional coupling with the medial-temporal lobe, for remembered objects only. These findings reveal a parietotemporal circuit that integrates available sensory cues (based on attention-grabbing saliency signals) and current memory requirements (storing objects' locations) to encode object-related spatial information in working memory.
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U2 - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4138-12.2013
DO - 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4138-12.2013
M3 - Article
VL - 33
SP - 4110
EP - 4117
JO - Journal of Neuroscience
JF - Journal of Neuroscience
SN - 0270-6474
IS - 9
ER -