A1 Journal article (refereed)
Alpha oscillations protect auditory working memory against distractors in the encoding phase (2025)


Tu, C.-A., Parviainen, T., Hämäläinen, J. A., & Hsu, Y.-F. (2025). Alpha oscillations protect auditory working memory against distractors in the encoding phase. Neuropsychologia, 207, Article 109058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.109058


JYU authors or editors


Publication details

All authors or editorsTu, Chia-An; Parviainen, Tiina; Hämäläinen, Jarmo A.; Hsu, Yi-Fang

Journal or seriesNeuropsychologia

ISSN0028-3932

eISSN1873-3514

Publication year2025

Publication date28/11/2024

Volume207

Article number109058

PublisherElsevier

Publication countryUnited Kingdom

Publication languageEnglish

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2024.109058

Publication open accessOpenly available

Publication channel open accessPartially open access channel

Publication is parallel published (JYX)https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/99369


Abstract

Alpha oscillations are proposed to serve the function of inhibition to protect items in working memory from intruding information. In a modified Sternberg paradigm, alpha power was initially found to increase at the anticipation of strong compared to weak distractors, reflecting the active gating of distracting information from interfering with the memory trace. However, there was a lack of evidence supporting the inhibition account of alpha oscillations in later studies using similar experimental design with greater temporal disparity between the encoding phase and the presentation of the distractors. This temporal disparity might have dampened the demands for inhibition. To test the hypothesis that alpha inhibition takes place when distractors are temporally close to the encoding phase, here we designed a modified Sternberg paradigm where distractors were sandwiched between targets in the encoding phase to ensure that they compete for working memory resources. Using electroencephalography (EEG), we replicated the finding that alpha power increased for strong compared to weak distractors. The effect was present throughout the encoding phase, not only upon the presentation of distractors but also before and after the presentation of distractors, providing evidence for both proactive and reactive inhibition of distractors at the neuronal level. Meanwhile, the effect was restricted to the context of high but not low target-to-distractor ratio. The results suggest that the distractors being temporally close to the encoding phase of more targets might be a boundary condition of the generation of alpha oscillations for gating.


Keywordsworking memoryEEGimagingcognitive processesbrain research

Free keywordsalpha oscillations; working memory; sternberg paradigm; electroencephalography (EEG)


Contributing organizations


Ministry reportingYes

VIRTA submission year2025

Preliminary JUFO rating2


Last updated on 2025-25-01 at 20:06