Contralateral delay activity and alpha lateralization reflect retinotopic and screen-centered reference frames in visual memory.

The visual system represents objects in a lateralized manner, with contralateral cortical hemispheres responsible for left and right visual hemifields. This organization extends to visual short-term memory (VSTM), as evidenced by electrophysiological indices of VSTM maintenance: contralateral delay activity (CDA) and alpha-band lateralization. However, it remains unclear if VSTM represents object locations in gaze-centered (retinotopic) or screen-centered (spatiotopic) coordinates, especially after eye movements.

Spatio-temporal dynamics of oscillatory brain activity during the observation of actions and interactions between point-light agents.

Predicting actions from non-verbal cues and using them to optimise one's response behaviour (i.e. interpersonal predictive coding) is essential in everyday social interactions.

Seeing a Bayesian ghost: Sensorimotor activation leads to an illusory social perception.

Based on our prior experiences we form social expectations and anticipate another person's response. Under certain conditions, these expectations can be so strong that they lead to illusory perception of another person who is actually not there (i.e.

Theta:gamma phase coupling and evoked gamma activity reflect the fidelity of mental templates during memory matching in visual perception.

Top-down predictions of future events shaped by prior experience are an important control mechanism to allocate limited attentional resources more efficiently and are thought to be implemented as mental templates stored in memory. Increased evoked gamma activity and theta:gamma phase-phase coupling over parieto-occipital areas have previously been observed when mental templates meet matching visual stimuli. Here, we investigated how these signatures evolve during the formation of new mental templates and how they relate to the fidelity of such.

Modulating verbal working memory with fronto-parietal transcranial electric stimulation at theta frequency: Does it work?

Oscillatory theta activity in a fronto-parietal network has been associated with working memory (WM) processes and may be directly related to WM performance. In their seminal study, Polanía et al. (2012) (de-)coupled a fronto-parietal theta-network by applying transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS), and showed that anti-phase tACS led to slower and in-phase tACS to faster response times in a verbal WM task compared to placebo stimulation.

EEG cross-frequency phase synchronization as an index of memory matching in visual search.

Visual perception is influenced by our expectancies about incoming sensory information. It is assumed that mental templates of expected sensory input are created and compared to actual input, which can be matching or not. When such mental templates are held in working memory, cross-frequency phase synchronization (CFS) between theta and gamma band activity has been proposed to serve matching processes between prediction and sensation.

Attention capture by salient object groupings in the neglected visual field.

The integration of fragmentary parts into coherent whole objects has been proposed either to rely on the availability of attentional resources or to arise automatically, that is, from preattentive processing (prior to the engagement of selective attention). In the present study, these two alternative accounts were tested in a group of neglect patients with right-hemisphere parietal brain damage and associated deficits of selective attention in the left (visual) hemispace. The reported experiment employed a search task that required detection of targets in the left and/or right hemifields, which were embedded in configurations that consisted of variants of Kanizsa figures.

Be Prepared: Tune to FM-Theta for Cognitive Control.

Rhythmical brain activity around 5Hz can be observed in the prefrontal cortex under conditions requiring high levels of cognitive control. However, its temporal dynamics are still elusive. A recent research paper (Cooper et al.

Does cross-frequency phase coupling of oscillatory brain activity contribute to a better understanding of visual working memory?

Nesting of fast rhythmical brain activity (gamma) into slower brain waves (theta) has frequently been suggested as a core mechanism of multi-item working memory (WM) retention. It provides a better understanding of WM capacity limitations, and, as we discuss in this review article, it can lead to applications for modulating memory capacity. However, could cross-frequency coupling of brain oscillations also constructively contribute to a better understanding of the neuronal signatures of working memory compatible with theoretical approaches that assume flexible capacity limits? Could a theta-gamma code also be considered as a neural mechanism of flexible sharing of cognitive resources between memory representations in multi-item WM? Here, we propose potential variants of theta-gamma coupling that could explain WM retention beyond a fixed memory capacity limit of a few visual items.

Age differences in gain- and loss-motivated attention.

Adaptive gain theory (Aston-Jones & Cohen, 2005) suggests that the phasic release of norepinephrine (NE) to cortical areas reflects changes in the utility of ongoing tasks. In the context of aging, this theory raises interesting questions, given that the motivations of older adults differ from those of younger adults. According to socioemotional selectivity theory (Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999), aging is associated with greater emphasis on emotion-regulation goals, leading older adults to prioritize positive over negative information.

Age differences in the Attention Network Test: Evidence from behavior and event-related potentials.

The Attention Network Test (ANT) is widely used to capture group and individual differences in selective attention. Prior behavioral studies with younger and older adults have yielded mixed findings with respect to age differences in three putative attention networks (alerting, orienting, and executive control). To overcome the limitations of behavioral data, the current study combined behavioral and electrophysiological measures.