Left temporal alpha band activity increases during working memory retention of pitches
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1
Radboud University Nijmegen, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Netherlands
The functional role and regional specificity of ~10 Hz alpha band activity remains debated. Alpha band activity is strongly modulated in visual working memory or cued attention tasks. Alpha activity has been proposed to subserve resource allocation by disengaging task-irrelevant regions. It remains unknown if alpha band activity plays a similar role in other sensory modalities. In this study we examined the role of ~10 Hz oscillations during auditory working memory processing. We applied whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) to investigate brain activity in a delayed-match-to-sample task (DMTS) including pure tones, non-harmonic complex tones and harmonic tones. The paradigm included a control condition in which no active auditory memory maintenance was required. We observed a bilateral increase in 5-12 Hz power during the perception of harmonic and non-harmonic complex tones compared to the control tone which most probably reflects differences in the N100m. During the memory maintenance period a left-lateralized increase in 5-12 Hz was found for all stimuli compared to the control condition. The frequency of the left-lateralized activity was slightly lower than the traditional alpha band. This is consistent with earlier studies reporting tau-activity in the auditory areas (Hari et al., 1997; Lehtela et al., 1997). Using a beamforming approach we identified the sources of the lateralized alpha band activity to left temporal regions. Given that fMRI, PET and lesion studies have identified right hemisphere regions to be engaged in memory of pitch, we propose that the 5-12 Hz activity serves to functionally disengage left temporal regions. Our findings support the notion that alpha activity is a general mechanism for disengaging task-irrelevant regions.
Conference:
Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism , Dubrovnik, Croatia, 28 Mar - 1 Apr, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Neurocognition and Functional Connectivity
Citation:
Van Dijk
H,
Nieuwenhuis
I,
Schulte
M and
Jensen
O
(2010). Left temporal alpha band activity increases during working memory retention of pitches.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism .
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.06.00353
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Received:
07 Apr 2010;
Published Online:
07 Apr 2010.
*
Correspondence:
Hanneke Van Dijk, Radboud University Nijmegen, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, Netherlands, hanneke.vandijk@med.uni-duesseldorf.de