A single pulse of TMS (spTMS) during the delay period of a double serial retrocuing working-memory task can briefly rescue decodability of an unprioritized memory item (UMI). This physiological phenomenon, which is paralleled in behavior by involuntary retrieval of the UMI, is carried by the beta frequency band, implicating beta-band dynamics in priority coding in working memory. We decomposed EEG data from 12 participants performing double serial retrocuing with concurrent delivery of spTMS using Spatially distributed PhAse Coupling Extraction. This procedure decomposes the scalp-level signal into a set of discrete coupled oscillators, each with a component strength that can vary over time. The decomposition revealed a diversity of low-frequency components, a subset of them strengthening with the onset of the task, and the majority declining in strength across the trial, as well as within each delay period. Results with spTMS revealed no evidence that it works by activating previously “silent” sources; instead, it had the effect of modulating ongoing activity, specifically by exaggerating the within-delay decrease in strength of posterior beta components. Furthermore, the magnitude of the effect of spTMS on the loading strength of a posterior beta component correlated with the disruptive effect of spTMS on performance, a pattern also seen when analyses were restricted to trials with “UMI-lure” memory probes. Rather than reflecting the “activation” of a putatively “activity silent” UMI, these results implicate beta-band dynamics in a mechanism that distinguishes prioritized from unprioritized, and suggest that the effect of spTMS is to disrupt this code.

The ability to prioritize among contents in working memory (WM) is critical for successful control of thought and behavior. Recent work has demonstrated that prioritization in WM can be implemented by representing different states of priority in different representational formats. Here, we explored the mechanisms underlying WM prioritization by simulating the double serial retrocuing task with recurrent neural networks. Visualization of stimulus representational dynamics using principal component analysis revealed that the network represented trial context (order of presentation) and priority via different mechanisms. Ordinal context, a stable property lasting the duration of the trial, was accomplished by segregating representations into orthogonal subspaces. Priority, which changed multiple times during a trial, was accomplished by separating representations into different strata within each subspace. We assessed the generality of these mechanisms by applying dimensionality reduction and multiclass decoding to fMRI and EEG data sets and found that priority and context are represented differently along the dorsal visual stream and that behavioral performance is sensitive to trial-by-trial variability of priority coding, but not context coding.

In the field of neuroscience, despite the fact that the proportion of peer-reviewed publications authored by women has increased in recent decades, the proportion of citations of women-led publications has not seen a commensurate increase: In five broad-scope journals, citations of papers first- and/or last-authored by women have been shown to be fewer than would be expected if gender was not a factor in citation decisions [Dworkin, J. D., Linn, K. A., Teich, E. G., Zurn, P., Shinohara, R. T., & Bassett, D. S. The extent and drivers of gender imbalance in neuroscience reference lists. Nature Neuroscience , 23 , 918–926, 2020]. Given the important implications that such underrepresentation may have on the careers of women researchers, it is important to determine whether this same trend is true in subdisciplines of the field, where interventions might be more targeted. Here, we report the results of an extension of the analyses carried out by Dworkin et al. (2020) to citation patterns in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience . The results indicate that the underrepresentation of women-led publications in reference sections is also characteristic of papers published in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience over the past decade. Furthermore, this pattern of citation imbalances is present regardless of author gender, implicating systemic factors. These results contribute to the growing body of evidence that intentional action is needed to address inequities in the way that we carry out and communicate our science.