RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Decoding concurrent representations of pitch and location in auditory working memory
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP JN-RM-2999-20
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2999-20.2021
A1 Stefan Czoschke
A1 Cora Fischer
A1 Tara Bahador
A1 Christoph Bledowski
A1 Jochen Kaiser
YR 2021
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/04/08/JNEUROSCI.2999-20.2021.abstract
AB Multivariate analyses of hemodynamic signals serve to identify the storage of specific stimulus contents in working memory. Representations of visual stimuli have been demonstrated both in sensory regions and in higher cortical areas. While previous research has typically focused on the working memory maintenance of a single content feature, it remains unclear whether two separate features of a single object can be decoded concurrently. Also, much less evidence exists for representations of auditory compared with visual stimulus features. To address these issues, human participants had to memorize both pitch and perceived location of one of two sample sounds. After a delay phase, they were asked to reproduce either pitch or location. At recall, both features showed comparable levels of discriminability. Region-of-interest-based decoding of functional magnetic resonance imaging data during the delay phase revealed feature-selective activity for both pitch and location of a memorized sound in auditory cortex and superior parietal lobule. The latter region showed higher decoding accuracy for location than pitch. In addition, location could be decoded from angular and supramarginal gyrus and both superior and inferior frontal gyrus. The latter region also showed a trend for decoding of pitch. We found no region exclusively coding pitch memory information. In summary, the present study yielded evidence for concurrent representations of pitch and location of a single object both in sensory cortex and in hierarchically higher regions, pointing towards representation formats that enable feature integration within the same anatomical brain regions.Significance StatementDecoding of hemodynamic signals serves to identify brain regions involved in the storage of stimulus-specific information in working memory. While to-be-remembered information typically consists of several features, most previous investigations have focused on the maintenance of one memorized feature belonging to one visual object. The present study assessed the concurrent storage of two features of the same object in auditory working memory. We found that both pitch and location of memorized sounds were decodable both in early sensory areas, in higher-level superior parietal cortex and, to a lesser extent, in inferior frontal cortex. While auditory cortex is known to process different features in parallel, their concurrent representation in parietal regions may support the integration of object features in working memory.