Flexible behavior requires guidance not only by sensations that are available immediately but also by relevant mental contents carried forward through working memory. Therefore, selective-attention functions that modulate the contents of working memory to guide behavior (inside-out) are just as important as those operating on sensory signals to generate internal contents (outside-in). We review the burgeoning literature on selective attention in the inside-out direction and underscore its functional, flexible, and future-focused nature. We discuss in turn the purpose (why), targets (what), sources (when), and mechanisms (how) of selective attention inside working memory, using visual working memory as a model. We show how the study of internal selective attention brings new insights concerning the core cognitive processes of attention and working memory and how considering selective attention and working memory together paves the way for a rich and integrated understanding of how mind serves behavior. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology, Volume 74 is January 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Turning Attention Inside Out: How Working Memory Serves Behavior.

https://pure.knaw.nl/ws/files/37261481/Olivers2020.pdf

Attention for action in visual working memory

Unveiling the abstract format of mnemonic representations

Working memory bridges perception to action over extended delays, enabling flexible goal-directed behaviour. To date, studies of visual working memory - concerned with detailed visual representations such as shape and colour - have considered visual memory predominantly in the context of visual task demands, such as visual identification and search. Another key purpose of visual working memory is to directly inform and guide upcoming actions. Taking this as a starting point, I review emerging evidence for the pervasive bi-directional links between visual working memory and (planned) action, and discuss these links from the perspective of their common goal of enabling flexible and precise behaviour.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13506285.2020.1759744

Visual working memory and action: Functional links and bi-directional influences.

Visual working memory (VWM) relies on a distributed cortical network. Yet, the extent to which individual cortical areas, like early visual cortex and intraparietal sulcus, are essential to VWM sto...

Essential considerations for exploring visual working memory storage in the human brain.

Working memory serves as the buffer between past sensations and future behavior, making it vital to understand not only how we encode and retain sensory information in memory but also how we plan for its upcoming use. We ask when prospective action goals emerge alongside the encoding and retention of visual information in working memory. We show that prospective action plans do not emerge gradually during memory delays but are brought into memory early, in tandem with sensory encoding. This action encoding (i) precedes a second stage of action preparation that adapts to the time of expected memory utilization, (ii) occurs even ahead of an intervening motor task, and (iii) predicts visual memory-guided behavior several seconds later. By bringing prospective action plans into working memory at an early stage, the brain creates a dual (visual-motor) memory code that can make memories more effective and robust for serving ensuing behavior.

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/7/13/eabe8212.full.pdf

Output planning at the input stage in visual working memory

Shielding working-memory representations from temporally predictable external interference

Temporal orienting of attention can affect multiple stages of processing to guide adaptive behaviour. We tested whether temporal expectation in different task contexts is compromised in individuals with Parkinson's disease (PD). In Experiment 1 two temporal-orienting tasks were used: a speeded task emphasizing motor preparation and a non-speeded task emphasizing perceptual discrimination using rapid serial visual presentation. In both tasks, auditory cues indicated the likelihood of a target appearing after a short or long interval. In the speeded-response task, participants used the cues to anticipate an easily detectable target stimulus. In the non-speeded perceptual-discrimination task, participants used the cues to help discriminate a target letter embedded in a stream of letters. Relative to healthy participants, participants with PD did not show altered temporal orienting effects in the speeded-response task. However, they were impaired in using temporal cues to improve perceptual discrimination. In Experiment 2, we tested whether the temporal-orienting deficits in the perceptual-discrimination task depended on the requirement to ignore temporally distracting stimuli. We replicated the impaired temporal orienting for perceptual discrimination in an independent group of individuals with PD, and showed the impairment was abolished when individuals were on their dopaminergic medication. In a task without any distracting letters, however, patients off or on medication benefited normally from temporal orienting cues. Our findings suggest that deficits in temporal orienting in individuals with PD interact with specific task demands, such as the requirement to select target from temporally competing distractors.

Temporal orienting in Parkinson's disease.

Working memory serves as the buffer between past sensations and future behaviour, making it vital to understand not only how we encode and retain information in memory but also how we plan for its upcoming use. We ask when prospective action goals emerge alongside the encoding and retention of detailed sensory information in working memory – whether future action plans emerge gradually during memory delays, or are brought into memory early, in tandem with sensory encoding. To address this, we tracked neural planning for prospective actions in a working-memory task in which detailed visual shape information was linked to specific manual actions after a delay. We show that prospective action plans in human motor cortex emerge early alongside the selective encoding of visual information into memory. This ‘action imprinting’ (1) precedes a second stage of action preparation that adapts to the time of expected memory utilisation, (2) occurs even in face of an intervening motor task, and (3) predicts visual-memory-guided behaviour several seconds later. By bringing prospective action plans into working memory at an early stage, the brain creates a dual (visual-motor) memory code that can make memories more effective and robust for serving future behaviour.

Output Planning at the Input Stage: Action Imprinting for Future Memory-Guided Behaviour

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Output planning at the input stage in visual working memory

Shielding working-memory representations from temporally predictable external interference

Temporal orienting in Parkinson's disease.

Output Planning at the Input Stage: Action Imprinting for Future Memory-Guided Behaviour