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The Dynamic Representational Nature of Working Memory

Project description

The dynamics of working memory storage

Working memory is how we keep things in mind. Central to the functioning of the mind, it temporarily holds a limited amount of information, like a phone number or a shopping list. Despite its limited capacity, it provides immediate mental use of any human higher cognition, allowing conceptual tasks like complex decision-making. The involved mechanism, the topography of its distribution in the brain, and how distributed storage is spatiotemporally organised to manage information, still needs explanation. Combining functional imaging, magneto-/electroencephalography, and invasive neural recordings, the EU funded DeepStore project will conduct experimental research on the neural underpinnings of working memory to decipher its multi-layered dynamic nature down to the single-cell level.

Objective

Working memory excels in keeping ready the momentary contents of all of human higher cognition despite being strictly limited in storage capacity. How the brain accomplishes this feat, beyond the temporary maintenance of just experienced information, is hardly understood. An emerging view suggests that working memory storage is topographically distributed according to the informations endogenous level of abstraction. However, very little is known about how such distributed storage is orchestrated spatiotemporally, that is, how representations at different levels of abstraction are structured dynamically in time to suit current demands.
In DeepStore, we use tailored experimental designs and newly developed multivariate analysis techniques to explore for the first time directly the depth-dimension of working memory, in terms of dynamic levels of abstraction. Combining functional imaging, magneto-/electroencephalography, and invasive neural recordings will make it possible to track levels of abstraction spatiotemporally, with millisecond precision.
In three ambitious experimental series, DeepStore will shed new light on long-standing open questions about working memory storage, including how it is modulated by attention, inattention, and distraction, and how multiple contents are stored simultaneously. The work will shape a new theory of the neurocognitive capacity limit in working memory. We will further test novel hypotheses about how working memory interfaces with long-term memory, and how it develops over the lifespan. Finally, we will combine our innovative human neuroimaging approach with direct electrophysiological recordings in non-human primates during the same task, to disclose the fine-grained neural mechanisms of dynamic abstraction down to the single-cell level. DeepStore is anticipated to provide fundamentally new insights into the dynamic and multi-layered nature of working memory, beyond the number and precision of items it can hold.

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Keywords

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Programme(s)

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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ERC-COG - Consolidator Grant

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) ERC-2020-COG

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Host institution

TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAET DRESDEN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 1 060 973,93
Address
HELMHOLTZSTRASSE 10
01069 Dresden
Germany

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Region
Sachsen Dresden Dresden, Kreisfreie Stadt
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 1 060 973,93

Beneficiaries (2)

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