Enhancing long-term memory with stimulation tunes visual attention in one trial.

ABSTRACT: Scientists have long proposed that memory representations control the mechanisms of attention that focus processing on the task-relevant objects in our visual field. Modern theories specifically propose that we rely on working memory to store the object representations that provide top-down control over attentional selection. Here, we show that the tuning of perceptual attention can be sharply accelerated after 20 min of noninvasive brain stimulation over medial-frontal cortex. Contrary to prevailing theories of attention, these improvements did not appear to be caused by changes in the nature of the working memory representations of the search targets. Instead, improvements in attentional tuning were accompanied by changes in an electrophysiological signal hypothesized to index long-term

SUBMITTER: Reinhart RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4299199 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature