Short-term memory is the brain mechanism which allows us to retain information over seconds. Working memory involves manipulation of the contents of short-term memory. It is considered to be a fundamental cognitive process, required to perform many everyday tasks and closely correlated to measures of intelligence.
Our research (Bays & Husain (2008) Science) led to a challenge to conventional wisdom. Previously, visual working memory was considered to be limited to a fixed number of items - just 3 or 4 - stored with every glimpse of the visual scene. Instead of asking whether you remember something or not, we ask how well you recall an object, e.g. its location, orientation or colour. In other words, we probe the quality of memory, not the quantity of items you can recall.
We can ask you to drag an item to its remembered location or ‘dial up’ your memory of its orientation, or point on a colour wheel to the colour that matches your recollection of its colour. By measuring the error between your recollection and the true location, or orientation or colour we obtain the precision of your memory on a continuous, analogue scale (Pertzov et al (2013) Brain; Gorgoraptis et al (2011) J Neurosci; Bays, Catalao & Husain (2009) J Vision).
Using precision of recall we have provided compelling evidence that visual working memory is not in fact ‘quantal’, but is better described as a limited resource that can be flexibly redistributed (Bays, Catalao & Husain (2009) J Vision; Ma, Husain & Bays (2014) Nature Neurosci).
With increasing number of items held in memory, the fidelity and resolution with which each object is stored declines in a systematic, predictable manner. Recall precision also begins to decline over just seconds when more than one item is held in memory (Pertzov et al (2012) JEP: HPP), while updating memory contents or ignoring distracting information have very different impacts on the quality of memory (Fallon et al (2017) Cerebral Cortex).
Analogue measures, which require participants to reproduce their recall of features, are a powerful means to model errors to obtain a better understanding of how memories are corrupted (Bays, Catalao & Husain (2009) J Vision; Ma, Husain & Bays (2014) Nature Neurosci).
Moreover, they provide sensitive means to measure memory in patients with neurodegenerative disorders or those at high risk of developing them (e.g. Zokaei et al (2014) Brain; Rolinski et al (2015) Brain; Liang et al (2016) Cortex).
You can find out more about our research on short-term / working memory and related topics, including application to patient populations, by downloading the articles below.
PUBLICATIONS LISTED HERE ARE AVAILABLE FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY
Reviews & Commentaries
Zokaei N, Husain M (2019) Working Memory in Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease Current Top Behav Neurosci (Epub ahead of print) PMID: 31347008
Manohar SG, Pertzov Y, Husain M (2017) Short-term memory for spatial, sequential and duration information. Current Opinon in Behavioural Sciences 17:20-26.
Fallon S, Zokaei N, Husain M (2016) Causes and consequences of limitations in visual working memory. Ann NY Acad Sci (Epub ahead of print). PMID: 26773268.
Ma WJ, Husain M, Bays PM. (2014) Changing concepts of working memory. Nature Neuroscience 2014, 17:347-356. PMID:24569831
Zokaei N, Ning S, Manohar S, Feredoes E, Husain M. (2014) Flexibility of representational states in working memory. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 8-853 PMID:25414654
Research Papers
Udale R, Tran MT, Manohar S, Husain M (2022) Dynamic in-flight shifts of working memory resources across saccades. J Exp Psychol Human Percept Perform 48:21-36 PMID: 35073141
Tabi YA, Maio MR, Attaallah B, Dickson S, Drew D, Idris MI, Kienast A, Klar V, Nobis L, Plant O, Saleh Y, Sandhu TR, Slavkova E, Toniolo S, Zokaei N, Manohar SG, Husain M (2022) Vividness of visual imagery questionnaire scores and their relationship to visual short-term memory performance. Cortex 146:186-199 PMID: 34894605
Lu K, Nicholas JM, Pertzov Y, Grogan J, Husain M, Pavisic IM, James SN, Parker TD, Lane CA, Keshavan A, Keuss SE, Buchanan SM, Murray-Smith H, Cash DM, Malone IB, Sudre CH, Coath W, Wong A, Henley SMD, Fox NC, Richards M, Schott JM, Crutch SJ (2021) Dissociable effects of APOE-ε4 and β-amyloid pathology on visual working memory. Nature Aging 1:1002-09 PMID: 34806027
Pavisic IM, Nicholas JM, Pertzov Y, O'Connor A, Liang Y, Collins JD, Lu K, Weston PSJ, Ryan NS, Husain M, Fox NC, Crutch SJ (2021) Visual short-term memory impairments in presymptomatic familial Alzheimer's disease: A longitudinal observational study. Neuropsychologia 162:108028 PMID: 34560142
Pavisic IM, Pertzov Y, Nicholas JM, O'Connor A, Lu K, Yong KXX, Husain M, Fox NC, Crutch SJ (2021) Eye-tracking indices of impaired encoding of visual short-term memory in familial Alzheimer's disease. Scientific Reports 11:8696 PMID: 33888739
Tabi YA, Maio MR, Fallon SJ, Udale R, Dickson S, Idris MI, Nobis L, Manohar SG, Husain M (2021) Impact of processing demands at encoding, maintenance and retrieval in visual working memory. Cognition (Epub ahead of print) PMID: 33984741
Veldsman M, Tai XY, Nichols T, Smith S, Peixoto J, Manohar S, Husain M (2020) Cerebrovascular risk factors impact frontoparietal network integrity and executive function in healthy ageing. Nature Communications 11:4340. PMID: 32895386
Grogan JP, Fallon SP, Zokaei N, Husain M, Coulthard EJ, Manohar S (2020) A new toolbox to distinguish the sources of spatial memory error. J Vision 20:6. PMID: 33289797
Zokaei N, Sillence A, Kienast A, Drew D, Plant O, Slavkova E, Manohar SG, Husain M (2020) Different patterns of short-term memory deficit in Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and subjective cognitive impairment. Cortex (Epub ahead of print) PMID: 32919108
Zokaei N, Board AG, Slavkova E, E Mackay C, Nobre AC, Husain M (2020) Superior short-term memory in ε2 APOE carriers across the age range. Behav Brain Res (Epub ahead of print) PMID: 32961217
Zokaei N, Grogan J, Fallon SJ, Slavkova E, Hadida J, Manohar S, Nobre AC, Husain M (2020) Short-term memory advantage for brief durations in human APOE ε4 carriers. Scientific Reports 10:9503. PMID: 32528115.
Miller TD, Chong TT, Aimola Davies AM, Johnson MR, Irani SR, Husain M, Ng TW, Jacob S, Maddison P, Kennard C, Gowland PA, Rosenthal CR (2020) Human hippocampal CA3 damage disrupts both recent and remote episodic memories. ELife 9 pii: e41836. PMID:31976861
Giehl K, Ophey A, Reker P, Rehberg S, Hammes J, Barbe MT, Zokaei N, Eggers C, Husain M, Kalbe E, van Eimeren T (2020) Effects of home-based working memory training on visuo-spatial working memory in Parkinson’s disease: A randomized controlled trial. J Cent Nerv Syst Dis (Epub ahead of print) PMID: 32002011
Fallon SJ, Gowell M, Maio MR, Husain M (2019) Dopamine affects short-term memory corruption over time in Parkinson's disease. Nature Partner Journals Parkinson's Disease 5:16. PMID: 31396548
Fallon SJ, Dolfen N, Parolo F, Zokaei N, Husain M (2019) Task-irrelevant financial losses inhibit the removal of information from working memory. Scientific Reports 9:1673 PMID: 30737421
Sahan MI, Dalmaijer ES, Verguts T, Husain M, Fias W (2019) The Graded Fate of Unattended Stimulus Representations in Visuospatial Working Memory. Frontiers Psychol 10:374 PMID: 30863347
Manohar SG, Zokaei N, Fallon SJ, Vogels TP, Husain M (2019) Neural mechanisms of attending to items in working memory. Neurosci Biobehav Rev (Epub ahead of print)
Tabi YA, Husain M, Manohar SG (2019) Recall cues interfere with retrieval from visuospatial working memory. Br J Psychol (Epub ahead of print)
Zokaei N, Nour NM, Sillence , Drew D, Adcock J, Stacey R, Voets N, Sen A, Husain M (2018) Binding deficits in visual short-term memory in patients with temporal lobectomy. Hippocampus (Epub ahead of print).
Fallon SJ, Mattiesing RM, Dolfen N, Manohar SG, Husain M (2018) Ignoring versus updating in working memory reveal differential roles of attention and feature binding. Cortex (Epub ahed of print).
Fallon SJ, Mattiesing RM, Muhammed K, Manohar S, Husain M (2017) Fractionating the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying working memory: Independent effects of dopamine and Parkinson's disease. Cerebral Cortex (Epub ahead of print)
Koyluoglu OO, Pertzov Y, Manohar S, Husain M, Fiete IR (2017) Fundamental bound on the persistence and capacity of short-term memory stored as graded persistent activity. ELife 6:e22225
Zokaei N, Giehl K, Sillence A, Neville MJ, Karpe F, Nobre AC, Husain M (2017) Sex and APOE: A memory advantage in male APOE ε4 carriers in midlife. Cortex (Epub ahead of print). PMID: 28086184
Fallon SJ, Zokaei N, Norbury A, Manohar SG, Husain M (2017) Dopamine alters the fidelity of working memory representations according to attentional demands. J Cogn Neurosci (Epub ahead of print). PMID: 27897674
Pertzov Y, Manohar G, Husain M (2016) Rapid forgetting results from competition over time between items in visual working memory. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn (Epub ahead of print). PMID: 27668485
Liang Y, Pertzov Y, Nicholas JM, Henley SM, Crutch S, Woodward F, Leung K, Fox NC, Husain M (2016) Visual short-term memory binding deficit in familial Alzheimer's disease. Cortex 78: 150-64 PMID: 27085491
Heinen K, Magliano L, Nandini M, Husain M, Cappelletti M, Zokaei N (2016) Cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation over posterior parietal cortex enhances distinct aspects of visual working memory. Neuropsychologia (Epub ahead of print) PMID: 27143222
Burnett Heyes S, Zokaei N, Husain M (2016) Longitudinal development of visual working memory precision in childhood and early adolescence. Cognitive Development 39: 36-44
Manohar S, Husain M (2016) Working memory for sequences of temporal durations reveals a volatile single-item store. Frontiers in Psychology. 7: 1655
Joseph S, Teki S, Kumar S, Husain M, Griffiths T (2016) Resource allocation models of auditory working memory. Brain Res (Epub ahead of print). PMID: 26835560
Rolinski H*, Zokaei N*, Baig F, Giehl K, Quinnell T, Zaiwalla Z, Mackay CE, Husain M, Hu MTM (2015) Visual short-term memory in REM sleep behaviour disorder mirror those in Parkinson's disease. Brain (Epub ahead of print) PMID: 26582557
Joseph S, Iverson P, Manohar S, Fox Z, Scott SK, Husain M (2015) Precision of working memory for speech sounds. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (Epub ahead of print) PMID: 25607721
Joseph S, Kumar S, Husain M, Griffiths TD (2015) Auditory working memory for objects vs. features. Frontiers in Neuroscience 9, 13 PMID: 25709563
Zokaei N, Manohar S, Husain M, Feredoes E. (2014) Causal Evidence for a Privileged Working Memory State in Early Visual Cortex. The Journal of Neuroscience 34: 158-162. PMID:2438127
Zokaei N, McNeill A, Proukakis C, Beavan M, Jarman P, Korlipara P, Hughes D, Mehta A, Hu MTM, Schapira AHV, Husain M. (2014) Visual short-term memory deficits associated with GBA mutation and Parkinson’s disease. Brain 137: 2303-2311. PMID:24919969
de Bourbon-Teles J, Bentley P, Koshino S, Shah K, Dutta A, Malhotra P, Egner T, Husain M, Soto D. (2014) Thalamic control of human attention driven by memory and learning. Current Biology 24: 993-999. PMID:24746799
Pertzov Y, Heider M, Liang Y, Husain M. (2014) Effects of Healthy Ageing on Precision and Binding of Object Location in Visual Short Term Memory. Psychol Aging 30, 26-35. PMID: 25528066
Zokaei N, Heider M, Husain M. (2014) Attention is required for maintenance of feature binding in visual working memory. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 67: 1191-213 PMID:24266343
Zokaei N, Burnett Heyes S, Gorgoraptis N, Budheo S, Husain M. (2014) Working memory recall precision is a more sensitive measure than span. J Neuropsychology (Epub ahead of print) PMID:25208525
Pearson B, Raskevicius J, Bays PM, Pertzov Y, Husain M. (2014) Working memory as a decision process. Journal Vision. 2:1-15. PMID:24492597
Pertzov Y, Husain M. (2014) The privileged role of location in visual working memory. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 76: 1914-24. PMID:24027033.
Pertzov Y, Miller TD, Gorgoraptis N, Caine D, Schott JM, Butler C, Husain M. (2013) Binding deficits in memory following medial temporal lobe damage in patients with voltage-gated potassium channel complex antibody-associated limbic encephalitis. Brain 136: 2474-85. PMID:23757763
Peich M, Husain M, Bays PM. (2013) Age-related decline of precision and binding in visual working memory. Psychology & Aging 28: 729-43. PMID:23978008
Pertzov Y, Bays PM, Joseph S, Husain M. (2013) Rapid forgetting prevented by retrospective attention cues. Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance 39: 1224-31. PMID:23244045
Kumar S, Joseph S, Pearson B, Teki S, Fox ZV, Griffiths TD, Husain M. (2013) Resource allocation and prioritization in auditory working memory. Cognitive Neuroscience 4:12-20. PMID:23486527
Burnett Heyes S, Zokaei N, van der Staaj I, Bays PM, Husain M. (2012) Development of visual working memory precision in childhood. Developmental Science 15: 528-39. PMID:22709402 PMC3401951
Pertzov Y, Dong MY, Peich MC, Husain M. (2012) Forgetting what was where: the fragility of object-location binding. PLoS One 7: e48214. PMID:23118956 PMC3485137
Gorgoraptis N, Catalao R, Bays P, Husain M. (2011) Dynamic updating of working memory resources for visual objects. Journal of Neuroscience 31: 8502-8511. PMID:21653854 PMC3124758
Bays PM, Wu EY, Husain M. (2011) Storage and binding of object features in visual working memory. Neuropsychologia. 49: 1622-31. PMID:21172364 PMC3119435
Bays PM, Catalao RFG, Husain M. (2009) The precision of visual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource. Journal of Vision 9: 1-11. PMID:19810788 PMC3118422
Bays P, Husain M. (2009) Scientific commentary: Response to ‘Comment on: Dynamic Shifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human Vision.’ Science 323: 877d. PMID:22822271 PMC3400944
Bays PM, Husain M. (2008) Dynamic Shifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human Vision. Science 321: 851-854. PMID:18687968 PMC2532743
Vuilleumier P, Sergent C, Schwartz S, Valenza N, Girardi M, Husain M, Driver J. (2008) Impaired perceptual memory of locations across gaze-shifts in patients with unilateral neglect. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19:1388-406. PMID:17651010 PMC2601183
Hartley T, Bird CM, Chan D, Cipolotti L, Husain M, Vargha-Khadem F, Burgess N. (2007) The hippocampus is required for short-term topographical memory in humans. Hippocampus 17: 34-48. PMID:17143905 PMC2677717
Malhotra P, Jäger HR, Playford ED, Brown MM, Driver J, Husain M. (2005) Spatial Working Memory Capacity in Unilateral Neglect. Brain 128: 424-435. PMID:15644422
Mannan S, Mort D, Hodgson T, Driver J, Kennard C, Husain M. (2005) Revisiting previously searched locations in visual neglect: Role of right parietal and frontal lesions in misjudging old locations as new. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 17: 340-354. PMID:1581124
Malhotra P, Mannan S, Driver J, Husain M. (2004) Impaired spatial working memory: One component of the visual neglect syndrome? Cortex 40: 667-676. PMID:15505977
Wojciulik E, Rorden C, Clarke K, Husain M, Driver J. (2004) Group study of an "undercover" test for visuospatial neglect: invisible cancellation can reveal more neglect than standard cancellation. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry 75:1356-8. PMID:15314135 PMC1739211
Vuilleumier P, Schwartz S, Clarke K, Husain M, Driver J. (2002) Testing Memory for Unseen Visual Stimuli in Patients with Extinction and Spatial Neglect. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 14: 875-886. PMID:12191455
Husain M, Mannan S, Hodgson T, Wojciulik E, Driver J, Kennard C. (2001) Impaired spatial working memory across saccades contributes to abnormal search in parietal neglect. Brain 124: 941-952. PMID:11335696
Wojciulik E, Husain M, Clarke K, Driver J. (2001) Spatial working memory deficit in unilateral neglect. Neuropsychologia 39: 390–396. PMID: 11164877
Walker R, Husain M, Hodgson T, Harrison J, Kennard C. (1998) Saccadic eye movement and working memory deficits following damage to human prefrontal cortex. Neuropsychologia 36: 1141-1159. PMID: 9842760