Behavioral Oscillations in Working Memory
Date:
Presented research conducted during the McNair Scholars summer program at the University of Nevada, Reno in Marian Berryhill’s lab. This talk explored whether behavior could be influenced by jittering stimulus presentation times to align with the brain’s intrinsic oscillatory cycles—particularly within the alpha frequency band.
The central hypothesis was that stimuli presented during an individual’s alpha trough (a phase of higher cortical excitability) would result in better behavioral performance compared to stimuli presented during the alpha peak. These findings contributed to understanding how neural timing can shape attentional engagement in working memory tasks.