Skip to main content

Hierarchical process memory: memory as an integral component of information processing

Author(s): Hasson, Uri; Chen, Janice; Honey, Christopher J.

Download
To refer to this page use: http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/pr16x7x
Abstract: Models of working memory commonly focus on how information is encoded into and retrieved from storage at specific moments. However, in the majority of real-life processes, past information is used continuously to process incoming information across multiple timescales. Considering single unit, electrocorticography, and functional imaging data, we argue that (i) virtually all cortical circuits can accumulate information over time, and (ii) the timescales of accumulation vary hierarchically, from early sensory areas with short processing timescales (tens to hundreds of milliseconds) to higher-order areas with long processing timescales (many seconds to minutes). In this hierarchical systems perspective, memory is not restricted to a few localized stores, but is intrinsic to information processing that unfolds throughout the brain on multiple timescales. “The present contains nothing more than the past, and what is found in the effect was already in the cause.” Henri L Bergson
Publication Date: Jun-2015
Citation: Hasson, Uri, Chen, Janice, Honey, Christopher J. (2015). Hierarchical process memory: memory as an integral component of information processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19 (6), 304 - 313. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.04.006
DOI: doi:10.1016/j.tics.2015.04.006
ISSN: 1364-6613
Pages: 304 - 313
Type of Material: Journal Article
Journal/Proceeding Title: Trends in Cognitive Sciences
Version: Author's manuscript



Items in OAR@Princeton are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.