A theory of working memory without consciousness or sustained activity
bioRxiv Preprint Server December 14, 2016 Darinka Trübutschek, Sébastien Marti, Andrés Ojeda et al. 47 citations preprint
Working memory and conscious perception are often thought to rely on the same brain mechanisms, but recent evidence suggests non-conscious working memory exists. Using visual masking and magnetoencephalography in a spatial delayed-response task, participants reported the location of a subjectively unseen target above chance after a long delay. Conscious perception and conscious working memory showed sustained alpha/beta desynchronization over frontal cortex and decodable target location in posterior sensors. During non-conscious working memory, these signals vanished, contradicting models equating working memory with sustained neural firing. The findings support 'activity-silent' working memory, where slowly decaying synaptic changes allow cell assemblies to go dormant during the delay yet be retrieved above chance after seconds.