Alpha power indexes working memory load for durations

Abstract

Timing, that is estimating, comparing, or remembering how long events last, requires the temporary storage of durations. How durations are stored in working memory is unknown, despite the widely held view of memory systems central role in timing. Here, we investigated the neural signatures of a sequence of durations (n-item sequence) held in working memory. We recorded human participants using magnetoencephalography (MEG) while they performed an n-item delayed reproduction task, which required to encode a sequence of durations, maintain it, and then reproduce it. The number of items in a sequence (one or three) and the duration of the sequence were orthogonalized. Our results show that during working memory maintenance, the number of durations, not the duration of the sequence, affected recall precision and could be decoded from alpha and beta oscillatory activity. Parieto-occipital alpha power showed a direct link with the precision of temporal reproduction. Our results extend earlier behavioral findings suggesting that durations are itemized in working memory and that their number, not their duration, modulates recall precision (Herbst et al., 2025). Crucially, we establish that alpha power reflects a universal signature of working memory load and mediates recall precision, even for abstract information such as duration.