Electrical and Hemodynamic Brain Correlates of Real-life Auditory Memory Retrieval

Abstract

Working memory and cognitive performance have received considerable attention in neuroscience research. Most of the studies have demonstrated their interaction over the prefrontal regions while manipulating visual or verbal working memory load. However, less attention has been directed to the impact of musical or auditory input in cognitive performance. In this study, electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) were measured when subjects were performing a paradigm of real-life auditory memory retrieval task. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated within subjects across the two runs of the blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI signals to determine the significant level of voxel activations. According to the pre-defined brain activations, time-frequency analysis and independent component analysis (ICA) of EEG signals are computed to observe the brain oscillations and to parse the scalp EEG signals into source activities. Furthermore, cross-frequency phase synchronization was utilized to evaluate the strength of functional connectivity in order to explore the underlying brain-network dynamics. We concluded that auditory working memory accompanied distinct brain network modulation to the visual or verbal task. The results and paradigm in the experiment might benefit from developing further applications in mental training and psychosocial intervention.