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Flexible and dynamic prioritisation of sounds and action plans within auditory working memory
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Poster D96 in Poster Session D, Wednesday, October 25, 4:45 - 6:30 pm CEST, Espace Vieux-Port
This poster is part of the Sandbox Series.
Irene Echeverria Altuna1,2, Pearl Young1, Sage E.P. Boettcher1,2, Kate E. Watkins1, Anna C. Nobre1,2; 1Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, 2Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA), Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford
Items and actions within visual working memory can be flexibly and dynamically prioritised to guide adaptive behaviour. However, less is known about the selection of sounds and action plans within auditory working memory, a process which may be essential for language processing and speech production. In the present study, we adapted a visuomotor working memory task to the auditory domain to test the dynamic prioritisation of sound representations and action plans within auditory working memory. At the beginning of each trial, participants (n = 24, healthy, aged 18-35) encoded the pitch of two vowels (played separately to the left and to the right ear). Each vowel was linked to a response (left or right button press) according to whether its pitch was high or low, respectively. Following encoding, a visual cue (vowel identity) prompted participants to prioritise one of the vowels and its corresponding action plan (left or right button press). If the delay between the visual cue and the pitch report probe was short (2 s; 50% of trials), participants reported the pitch of the cued vowel by pressing the corresponding button (80% validity). However, if the delay after the cue was sufficiently long (4 s; 50% of trials), participants were instructed to “switch” to the other vowel representation and action plan, thus reporting its pitch by pressing the other button (80% validity). At the end of both short and long trials, participants reported the pitch of the prioritised vowel by pressing the left or right button repeatedly thus circling through a set of sequentially played pure tones until they found the tone matching the pitch of the selected vowel. In this study, the prioritisation of auditory representations and action plans was prompted by two different signals: an external, visual cue and the internal monitoring of the passage of time. Additionally, sound location and required response hand were orthogonally manipulated, enabling us to track sound and action prioritisation independently. We revealed that the flexible prioritisation of sounds and action plans within auditory working memory resulted in significant behavioural benefits. Participants were faster and better at reporting the prioritised vowels in trials where selection was prompted by an external cue and in trials in which prioritisation was guided by the internal monitoring of time. From this, we conclude that sound and action representations within auditory working memory can be flexibly and dynamically prioritised. Such flexible prioritisation of relevant sounds and motor plans within auditory working memory at specific times may be a fundamental process for language processing and speech production.
Topic Areas: Control, Selection, and Executive Processes, Multisensory or Sensorimotor Integration