Mnemonic and attentional roles for states of attenuated alpha oscillations in perceptual working memory: a review.

ABSTRACT: Alpha oscillations are often reported to be amplified during working memory (WM) retention, serving to disengage sensory areas to protect internal representations from external interference. At the same time, contemporary views of WM postulate that sensory areas may often also be recruited for retention. I here review recent evidence that during such 'perceptual' WM, alpha oscillations in mnemonically relevant sensory areas are not amplified but attenuated instead. I will argue that such attenuated alpha states serve a mnemonic role and, further, that larger attenuation may support item-specific attentional prioritisation within perceptual WM. In critically evaluating this role, I also consider (and argue against) four alternatives to a strictly mnemonic account of the available data that

SUBMITTER: van Ede F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6220786 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature