Understand the Working of Visual Memory

Understanding the mechanism of working memory has finally been decoded, which may further help appreciate how visual memories are stored as per a study at the New York University, published in the journal Neuron.

“For decades researchers have wondered about the nature of the neural representations that support our working memory. In this study, we used both experimental and analytical techniques to reveal the format of working memory representations in the brain,” says Clayton Curtis, professor of psychology and neural science at New York University and the senior author of the paper.

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‘Age-old mystery of how memory is stored in the brain — is finally answered, as scientists unveil new insights on working memory.’

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Working memory is a type of memory that allows the storage of information for brief periods. It is the building block for most of our higher cognitive processes, and its dysfunction is at the heart of a variety of psychiatric and neurologic symptoms, including schizophrenia.

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To completely discover the working memory representations in the brain, the team hypothesized that our brains not only discard task-irrelevant features but also re-code task-relevant features into memory formats that are both efficient and distinct from the perceptual inputs themselves.

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The researchers measured the brain activity of the participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while they performed visual working memory tasks.

It was found that the patterns of neural activity in the visual cortex and parietal cortex—a part of the brain used in memory processing and storage — were interchangeable during memory, despite the different types of visual stimulation.

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“We could see lines of activity across the topographic maps at angles corresponding to the motion direction and grating.” “Our visual memory is flexible and can be abstractions of what we see driven by the behaviors they guide,” says Curtis.

Source-Medindia