Schedule of Events | Symposia

Differential Neural Correlates of EEG Mediate the Impact of Internally and Externally Directed Attention in a Dual-task Working Memory Paradigm

Poster Session A - Saturday, March 29, 2025, 3:00 – 5:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

Ankit Yadav¹ (yadavankit99@gmail.com), Arpan Banerjee¹, Dipanjan Roy²; ¹National Brain Research Centre, India, ²Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur, India

Spontaneous internally directed attention, such as mind-wandering, often impairs performance in cognitive tasks. However, the effect of intentional internally directed attention (IDA)—for example, purposefully reflecting on past or future events—on task performance remains poorly understood. In this study, we utilized a dual-task paradigm incorporating self-referential stimuli within a color-recall visual working memory task. Our findings indicate that intentional IDA exerts a more pronounced effect on performance compared to intentional externally directed attention (EDA). Specifically, IDA elicited larger late positive potentials (LPP) over medial frontal sensors, suggesting sustained stimulus processing in these regions. Furthermore, neural activity associated with internal attention showed a distinct pattern: event-related desynchronization (ERD) in the alpha band (8–12 Hz) during the encoding phase, followed by event-related synchronization (ERS) in the delay phase. Conversely, the EDA condition was characterized by theta band (4–8 Hz) ERS during the delay period. These results underscore the differential behavioral and neural signatures of internally versus externally directed attention in dual-task contexts.

Topic Area: ATTENTION: Other