ArticleScientific reports2020
Salient distractors open the door of perception: alpha desynchronization marks sensory gating in a working memory task.
Article in Scientific reports, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Bouncing back: Transient, but not long-lasting, effects of background disturbances on speech processing.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Limited Consistency and Strength of Neural Oscillations During Sustained Visual Attention in Schizophrenia.Biological psychiatry. Cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging · 2024Article
- Frontal delta and theta power reflect strategy changes during human spatial memory retrieval in a virtual water maze task: an exploratory analysis.Frontiers in cognition · 2024Article
- Magnetoencephalography-derived oscillatory microstate patterns across lifespan: the Cambridge centre for ageing and neuroscience cohort.Brain communications · 2024Article
- Suppression of alpha-band power underlies exogenous attention to emotional distractors.Psychophysiology · 2022Article
- Parietal Alpha Oscillations: Cognitive Load and Mental Toughness.Brain sciences · 2022Article
- Cognitive control, interference inhibition, and ordering of information during working memory in younger and older healthy adults.GeroScience · 2022Article
- Reliability of Neural Entrainment in the Human Auditory System.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Article
- EEG as a Functional Marker of Nicotine Activity: Evidence From a Pilot Study of Adults With Late-Life Depression.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
Focusing attention on relevant information while ignoring distracting stimuli is essential to the efficacy of working memory. Alpha- and theta-band oscillations have been linked to the inhibition of anticipated and attentionally avoidable distractors. However, the neurophysiological background of the rejection of task-irrelevant stimuli appearing in the focus of attention is not fully understood. We aimed to examine whether theta and alpha-band oscillations serve as an indicator of successful distractor rejection. Twenty-four students were enrolled in the study. 64-channel EEG was recorded during a modified Sternberg working memory task where weak and strong (salient) distractors were presented during the retention period. Event-related spectral perturbation in the alpha frequency band was significantly modulated by the saliency of the distracting stimuli, while theta oscillation was modulated by the need for cognitive control. Moreover, stronger alpha desynchronization to strong relative to weak distracting stimuli significantly increased the probability of mistakenly identifying the presented distractor as a member of the memory sequence. Therefore, our results suggest that alpha activity reflects the vulnerability of attention to distracting salient stimuli.
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