Irrelevant sensory stimuli interfere with working memory storage: Evidence from a computational model of prefrontal neurons

• Published in: Cognitive, affective, & behavioral neuroscience Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 23 - 34
• Main Authors: Bancroft, Tyler D., Hockley, William E., Servos, Philip
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer-Verlag 01.03.2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Anatomical correlates of behavior; Attention - physiology; Behavioral psychophysiology; Behavioral Science and Psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Cognitive Psychology; Computer Simulation; Decision making; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Human; Humans; Information storage; Learning. Memory; Memory; Memory, Short-Term - physiology; Models, Neurological; Neurons; Neurons - physiology; Neurosciences; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Reaction Time - physiology; Sensors; Touch - physiology; Prefrontal cortex; Working memory; Single-unit physiology; Computational model; Attention; Short-term memory; Human; Central nervous system; Interference; Cognition; Encephalon; Stimulus pertinence; Tactile sensitivity; Neuron; Storage; Perception; Simulation model; Mathematical model
• ISSN: 1530-7026; 1531-135X
• DOI: 10.3758/s13415-012-0131-9

The encoding of irrelevant stimuli into the memory store has previously been suggested as a mechanism of interference in working memory (e.g., Lange & Oberauer, Memory, 13, 333–339, 2005 ; Nairne, Memory & Cognition, 18, 251–269, 1990 ). Recently, Bancroft and Servos (Experimental Brain Research, 208, 529–532, 2011 ) used a tactile working memory task to provide experimental evidence that irrelevant stimuli were, in fact, encoded into working memory. In the present study, we replicated Bancroft and Servos’s experimental findings using a biologically based computational model of prefrontal neurons, providing a neurocomputational model of overwriting in working memory. Furthermore, our modeling results show that inhibition acts to protect the contents of working memory, and they suggest a need for further experimental research into the capacity of vibrotactile working memory.