Neurophysiological Verbal Working Memory Patterns in Children: Searching for a Benchmark of Modality Differences in Audio/Video Stimuli Processing

Abstract

Exploration of specific brain areas involved in verbal working memory (VWM) is a powerful but not widely used tool for the study of different sensory modalities, especially in children. In this study, for the first time, we used electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate neurophysiological similarities and differences in response to the same verbal stimuli, expressed in the auditory and visual modality during the n-back task with varying memory load in children. Since VWM plays an important role in learning ability, we wanted to investigate whether children elaborated the verbal input from auditory and visual stimuli through the same neural patterns and if performance varies depending on the sensory modality. Performance in terms of reaction times was better in visual than auditory modality ( $p$  = 0.008) and worse as memory load increased regardless of the modality ( $p$  < 0.001). EEG activation was proportionally influenced by task level and was evidenced in theta band over the prefrontal cortex ( $p$  = 0.021), along the midline ( $p$  = 0.003), and on the left hemisphere ( $p$  = 0.003). Differences in the effects of the two modalities were seen only in gamma band in the parietal cortices ( $p$  = 0.009). The values of a brainwave-based engagement index, innovatively used here to test children in a dual-modality VWM paradigm, varied depending on n-back task level ( $p$  = 0.001) and negatively correlated ( $p$  = 0.002) with performance, suggesting its computational effectiveness in detecting changes in mental state during memory tasks involving children. Overall, our findings suggest that auditory and visual VWM involved the same brain cortical areas (frontal, parietal, occipital, and midline) and that the significant differences in cortical activation in theta band were more related to memory load than sensory modality, suggesting that VWM function in the child’s brain involves a cross-modal processing pattern.