How does responding to a target enhance memory? In a new neuroimaging paper titled “Auditory Target Detection Enhances Visual Processing and Hippocampal Functional Connectivity”, Moyal, Turker, Luh, and Swallow found that responding to auditory targets increased activity in the locus coeruleus, increased the amount of information about the simultaneously presented image in visual cortex. and increased connectivity between the hippocampus and visual regions. These results are consistent with the proposal that the attentional boost effect reflects the engagement of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine neuromodulatory system, briefly increasing the uptake of information by perceptual and episodic memory systems.
New fMRI paper on the attentional boost effect!
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