Domain general mnemonic-attentional brain states fluctuate on sub-second timescales

Abstract

You remember what you attend to and you attend to what you remember. Memory is supported through engagement of mnemonic brain states, multivariate whole brain activity patterns that modulate down- stream processing and behavior. Attention can be focused externally to the environment or internally to thoughts and mental representations. To understand and promote successful cognition, it is critical to establish the extent to which the same brain states support both memory and attention processes. We recorded scalp EEG during three tasks in which we manipulated external and internal attention demands. We applied an independently-validated mnemonic state classifier to these data and find evidence in sup- port of our hypothesis that memory encoding and retrieval states map onto the external/internal axis of attention. Furthermore, our findings reveal sub-second fluctuations in mnemonic states. These results demonstrate that domain general mnemonic states support attentional orienting and can be used to detect moment-to-moment shifts in attention.