Decoding of Working Memory Contents in Auditory Cortex Is Not Distractor-Resistant.

Working memory enables the temporary storage of relevant information in the service of behavior. Neuroimaging studies have suggested that sensory cortex is involved in maintaining contents in working memory. This raised the question of how sensory regions maintain memory representations during the exposure to distracting stimuli.

Interference between items stored for distinct tasks in visual working memory.

The action perspective on working memory suggests that memory representations are coded according to their specific temporal and behavioral task demands. This stands in contrast to theories that assume representations are stored in a task-agnostic format within a "common workspace". Here, we tested whether visual items that are memorized for different tasks are stored separately from one another or show evidence of inter-item interference during concurrent maintenance, indicating a common storage.

Situational factors shape moral judgements in the trolley dilemma in Eastern, Southern and Western countries in a culturally diverse sample.

The study of moral judgements often centres on moral dilemmas in which options consistent with deontological perspectives (that is, emphasizing rules, individual rights and duties) are in conflict with options consistent with utilitarian judgements (that is, following the greater good based on consequences). Greene et al. (2009) showed that psychological and situational factors (for example, the intent of the agent or the presence of physical contact between the agent and the victim) can play an important role in moral dilemma judgements (for example, the trolley problem).

Decoding Concurrent Representations of Pitch and Location in Auditory Working Memory.

Multivariate analyses of hemodynamic signals serve to identify the storage of specific stimulus contents in working memory (WM). Representations of visual stimuli have been demonstrated both in sensory regions and in higher cortical areas. While previous research has typically focused on the WM maintenance of a single content feature, it remains unclear whether two separate features of a single object can be decoded concurrently.

Decoding Spatial Versus Non-spatial Processing in Auditory Working Memory.

Objective: Research on visual working memory has shown that individual stimulus features are processed in both specialized sensory regions and higher cortical areas. Much less evidence exists for auditory working memory. Here, a main distinction has been proposed between the processing of spatial and non-spatial sound features.

Variability in the analysis of a single neuroimaging dataset by many teams.

Data analysis workflows in many scientific domains have become increasingly complex and flexible. Here we assess the effect of this flexibility on the results of functional magnetic resonance imaging by asking 70 independent teams to analyse the same dataset, testing the same 9 ex-ante hypotheses. The flexibility of analytical approaches is exemplified by the fact that no two teams chose identical workflows to analyse the data.

Context information supports serial dependence of multiple visual objects across memory episodes.

Serial dependence is thought to promote perceptual stability by compensating for small changes of an object's appearance across memory episodes. So far, it has been studied in situations that comprised only a single object. The question of how we selectively create temporal stability of several objects remains unsolved.

Gaze-based and attention-based rehearsal in spatial working memory.

How do we maintain information about spatial configurations in mind? Many working memory (WM) models assume that rehearsal processes are used to counteract forgetting in WM. Here, we investigated the contributions of gaze-based and attention-based rehearsal for protecting spatial representations from time-based forgetting. Participants memorized 6 locations selected from a grid of 30 scattered dots.

On-item fixations during serial encoding do not affect spatial working memory.

Ample evidence suggests that there is overlap between the eye-movement system and spatial working memory. Such overlapping structures or capacities may result in interference on the one hand and beneficial support on the other. We investigated eye-movement control during encoding of verbal or spatial information, keeping the display the same between tasks.

Two types of serial dependence in visual working memory.

Stimulus representations in working memory depend on memory traces of past stimuli both from previous trials and from the current trial. However, it is unclear whether the same or different mechanisms underlie this serial dependence across and within trials. We directly contrasted estimates of bias for pairs of immediately successive stimuli across and within trials.

Sequential whole report accesses different states in visual working memory.

Working memory (WM) enables a rapid access to a limited number of items that are no longer physically present. WM studies usually involve the encoding and retention of multiple items, while probing a single item only. Hence, little is known about how well multiple items can be reported from WM.

Automatized smoking-related action schemata are reflected by reduced fMRI activity in sensorimotor brain regions of smokers.

In the later stages of addiction, automatized processes play a prominent role in guiding drug-seeking and drug-taking behavior. However, little is known about the neural correlates of automatized drug-taking skills and drug-related action knowledge in humans. We employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) while smokers and non-smokers performed an orientation affordance task, where compatibility between the hand used for a behavioral response and the spatial orientation of a priming stimulus leads to shorter reaction times resulting from activation of the corresponding motor representations.