Top-down selection of visual working memory contents is supported by alpha-band phase-synchronized oscillatory networks

Thumbnail Image

Files

Top-down_selection_of_visual_working_memory_contents_is_supported_by_alpha-band_phase-synchronized_oscillatory_networks.pdf (5.59 MB)

Access rights

openAccess
CC BY
publishedVersion

URL

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

A1 Alkuperäisartikkeli tieteellisessä aikakauslehdessä
This publication is imported from Aalto University research portal.
View publication in the Research portal (opens in new window)
View/Open full text file from the Research portal (opens in new window)
Unless otherwise stated, all rights belong to the author. You may download, display and print this publication for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.

Authors

Date

2025-12-23

Department

Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

19

Series

Imaging Neuroscience, pp. 1-19

Abstract

Visual working memory (VWM) maintenance depends on oscillatory network dynamics across multiple frequency bands throughout fronto-parietal and sensory brain areas. However, whether these networks reflect the active maintenance of visual information content or serve top-down control processes has remained unresolved. To address this, we used concurrent magneto- and electroencephalography (M/EEG) to measure brain activity during VWM tasks, in which the memory content was parametrically controlled. Using new edge-level analysis for source-connectivity networks, we disentangled connections and subnetworks underlying the maintenance of specific contents from those supporting feature-general VWM. We show here that long-range high-alpha band (α, 11–13 Hz) phase-synchronization networks carry out a dual role in these VWM functions. α-band subgraphs localized to the visual areas are feature-selective and maintain the contents of VWM. In contrast, the high α-band subgraph in the fronto-parietal areas was shared across memory contents, suggesting that it forms the content-agnostic executive core of VWM. We propose that α-band synchronization across distinct, but yet interconnected, subgraphs support the active maintenance of feature representations and their top-down selection.

Description

Keywords

Other note

DOI

10.1162/IMAG.a.1034

Citation

Haque, H, Wang, S H, Siebenhühner, F, Robertson, E M, Palva, J M & Palva, S 2025, 'Top-down selection of visual working memory contents is supported by alpha-band phase-synchronized oscillatory networks', Imaging Neuroscience, pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a.1034

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202601141197

Collections

[article-cris] Perustieteiden korkeakoulu / SCI