Cognitive Neuroscience of Visual Attention and Working Memory

Working memory is of central importance for high-level cognition in the primate. My group takes a brute-force approach to studying 'how working memory works' -- with brain imaging and brain stimulation methods -- and we have found ourselves moving increasingly "upstream", away from the prefrontal cortex and toward the thalamocortical circuitry that underlies visual perception. We're working with the idea that visuospatial attention and, therefore, working memory, may be accomplished, in part, via the hijacking of the oscillatory dynamics that are fundamental to mammalian sensory systems.

Speaker: Brad Postle, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison