P23. Does visual attentional performance determine working memory capacity?

Abstract

In everyday life, working memory plays an important role. In the case of cognitive deficits, especially in old age, a diminishing working memory frequently causes increasing uncertainty and self-sufficiency among those affected. However, it is difficult to train the working memory to counter the effects of degeneration. Studies, in particular from the group around E.K. Vogel, suggest a link between individual working memory capacity (WMC) and selective attention. Subjects who are able to blend out irrelevant information had a higher individual WMC. In this study, we examine the relationship between the individual WMC and attention directed top-down modulation of visual areas under the hypothesis that a more differentiated modulation supports the elimination of irrelevant information, thus enabling a higher individual WMC. For this purpose, the attention driven top-down modulation of visual retinotopic areas was determined in subjects with high WMC and those with low WMC using fMRI. The individual WMC was quantified by an adapted variant of the Vogel paradigm. In subjects with individual WMC in the highest and lowest quartile, a second testing step was performed to assess the individual magnitude of attention driven top-down modulation in retinotopic visual areas. We find evidence of a link between the individual visual attention performance and the individual WMC. By developing a training paradigm in a next step, a more differentiated modulation of visual attention is intended to increase the individual working memory in order to support the independence of persons with cognitive decline.