Neurophysiological bases of exponential sensory decay and top-down memory retrieval: A model

Behavioral observations suggest that multiple sensory elements can be maintained for a short time, forming a perceptual buffer which fades after a few hundred milliseconds. Only a subset of this perceptual buffer can be accessed under top-down control and broadcasted to working memory and consciousn...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Zylberberg, Ariel Dario, Dehaene, Stanislas, Mindlin, Bernardo Gabriel, Sigman, Mariano
Tipo de documento: artigo
Estado:Versão publicada
Data de publicação:2009
País:Argentina
Recursos:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositório:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglês
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/61595
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/61595
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:ATTENTIONAL BLINK
ATTRACTOR NETWORKS
DUAL-TASK INTERFERENCE
ICONIC MEMORY
STOCHASTIC PROCESSES
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.6
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descrição
Resumo:Behavioral observations suggest that multiple sensory elements can be maintained for a short time, forming a perceptual buffer which fades after a few hundred milliseconds. Only a subset of this perceptual buffer can be accessed under top-down control and broadcasted to working memory and consciousness. In turn, single-cell studies in awake-behaving monkeys have identified two distinct waves of response to a sensory stimulus: a first transient response largely determined by stimulus properties and a second wave dependent on behavioral relevance, context and learning. Here we propose a simple biophysical scheme which bridges these observations and establishes concrete predictions for neurophsyiological experiments in which the temporal interval between stimulus presentation and top-down allocation is controlled experimentally. Inspired in single-cell observations, the model involves a first transient response and a second stage of amplification and retrieval, which are implemented biophysically by distinct operational modes of the same circuit, regulated by external currents. We explicitly investigated the neuronal dynamics, the memory trace of a presented stimulus and the probability of correct retrieval, when these two stages were bracketed by a temporal gap. The model predicts correctly the dependence of performance with response times in interference experiments suggesting that sensory buffering does not require a specific dedicated mechanism and establishing a direct link between biophysical manipulations and behavioral observations leading to concrete predictions. © 2009 Zylberberg, Dehaene, Mindlin and Sigman.