Stimulus interference and oscillatory EEG feature relationships with auditory working memory fidelity

Poster Session E - Monday, April 15, 2024, 2:30 – 4:30 pm EDT, Sheraton Hall ABC

Michael A. Tollefsrud¹ (attraten@gmail.com), Chelsea N. Joyner¹, Matthew G. Wisniewski¹, Alexandria C. Zakrzewski¹; ¹Kansas State University

Auditory working memory studies have begun to employ method of adjustment paradigms where participants reproduce sounds in real-time to match their memory of presented items. This has given researchers a better picture of auditory working memory fidelity than one-shot paradigms (e.g., same-different). In two studies (behavioral, EEG), we assessed the impacts of stimulus interference during retention on the fidelity of pitch memories. In experiment 1, participants heard a target tone having a randomly selected fundamental frequency (f0) followed by interference signals (4 s), and then an opportunity to match the target f0. Interference could be in the form of target similar tones, white noise, or silence. Interference type significantly impacting auditory working memory fidelity, with tone interference causing the greatest impairments to matching accuracy and precision. In Experiment 2, we recorded high-density EEG (128 channels) during performance of the same task with tone interference only. Preliminary analyses suggest that auditory working memory fidelity is related to the phase of prestimulus tau rhythm oscillations and the power of frontal theta oscillations during retention. Results are discussed in the context of "slot" and "resource" models of auditory working memory, and the role that oscillations may play in ongoing working memory processes

Topic Area: PERCEPTION & ACTION: Audition