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futurity_sci_tech 00326.txt

#EEG reveals image in short-term memory Researchers have tapped the rhythm of memories as they occur in near real time in the human brain. Using electroencephalogram (EEG) electrodes attached to the scalps of 25 student subjects, a team led by University of Oregon psychology doctoral student David E. Anderson captured synchronized neural activity while they held a simple oriented bar located within a circle in short-term memory. The team, by monitoring these alpha rhythms, was able to decode the precise angle of the bar the subjects were locking onto and use that brain activity to predict which individuals could store memories with the highest quality or precision. Although past research has decoded thoughts via brain activity standard approaches are limited expensive and in their ability to track fast-moving mental representations, says Edward Awh, a professor in the department of psychology and Institute of Neuroscience. The new findings show that EEG measures of synchronized neural activity can precisely track the contents of memory at almost the speed of thought, he says. hese findings provide strong evidence that these electrical oscillations in the alpha frequency band play a key role in a person ability to store a limited number of items in working memory, Awh says. y identifying particular rhythms that are important to memory, wee getting closer to understanding the low-level building blocks of this really limited cognitive ability. If this rhythm is what allows people to hold things in mind, then understanding how that rhythm is generatednd what restricts the number of things that can be representeday provide insights into the basic capacity limits of the mind. BRAIN STORAGE The findings come from a basic research project led by Awh and coauthor Edward K. Vogel that seeks to understand the limits of storing information. t turns out that it quite restricted, Awh says. eople can only think about a couple of things at a time, and they miss things that would seem to be extremely obvious and memorable if that limited set of resources is diverted elsewhere. Past work, mainly using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fmri), has established that brain activity can track the content of memory. EEG, however, provides a much less expensive approach and can track mental activity with much a higher temporal resolution of about one-tenth of a second compared to about five seconds with fmri. ith EEG we get a fine-grained measure of the precise contents of memory, while benefitting from the superior temporal resolution of electrophysiological measures, Awh says. his EEG approach is a powerful new tool for tracking and decoding mental representations with high temporal resolution. It should provide us with new insights into how rhythmic brain activity supports core memory processes. The NIH National institute of mental health funded the research. John T. Serences of the University of California, San diego, also was a coauthor of the study l

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