Temporal limits of spatial working memory in humans
Abstract
An essential feature attributed to working memory is the labile and transient nature of its representations. Using an oculomotor task, we examined the stability of spatial working memory in 16 normal human subjects. Eye movements towards remembered spatial cues (memory‐guided saccades) were electro‐oculographically recorded after memorization delays that varied unpredictably between 0.5 and 30 s. A peaked time‐course of saccadic targeting errors, with maximal errors around 20 s delay, was found, showing that delay‐dependent decay of spatial information in working memory occurs, but is time‐limited and reverts significantly beyond delays of about 20 s. These data (i) indicate temporal limits of spatial working memory and (ii) provide the first behavioural evidence for the existence of two parallely generated mental representations of space that successively control memory‐guided behaviour in humans.
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In memory-guided saccade tasks, variability of saccade endpoints increases with delay duration.
“In memory-guided saccade tasks, variability of saccade endpoints increases with delay duration (Funahashi et al., 1989;White et al. 1994;Ploner et al. 1998).”
From Linking microcircuit dysfunction to cognitive impairment: Effects of disinhibition associated with schizophrenia in a cortical working memory model (2014) · cites this paper as Ploner et al. 1998
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References 19 · Cited by 89
- Authors
- Ploner, C. J., Gaymard, B., Rivaud, S., Agid, Y., & Pierrot‐Deseilligny, C.
- Affiliations
- Inserm (FR)
- ORCID
- Ploner, Christoph J.
- Venue
- European Journal of Neuroscience
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 1998-02
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 794-797
- ISSN
- 0953-816X (ISSN-L)
- 1460-9568
- OpenAlex
- W1979752715
- Cited by
- 89
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 4
- FWCI
- 5.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- European Journal of Neuroscience (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Cognitive Abilities and Testing
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Keywords
- spatial working memory, memory decay, memory-guided saccades, memory delay, oculomotor control
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Cues, Electrooculography, Eye Movements, Female, Humans, Male, Memory, Short-Term, Middle Aged, Saccades, Space Perception, Time Factors
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