Abstract

This study investigated neural mechanisms underlying working memory by employing a visual n-back task with graded cognitive load (0-back to 3-back). Ten healthy volunteers (6 males, 4 females; mean age 23.3 ± 0.9 years) participated, performing a spatial matching task where they judged whether the current position of a displayed square matched the position presented n trials earlier, responding via keypress ("V" for match, "N" for non-match). EEG signals were recorded using a NeuroScan system with SynAmps2 amplifiers at a 1,000 Hz sampling rate, following the 10-20 international electrode placement standard. The experimental design leveraged positional matching across incremental memory loads to dissociate cognitive effort and generate standardized behavioral and neural datasets.

Instructions:

Subjects
- 10 healthy volunteers (6 males, 4 females; age: 23.3 ± 0.9 years).
- No history of neurological/psychiatric disorders.
- Ethical approval obtained from Nanjing Drum Tower Hospital (IRB: 2024-050-01).
Experimental Design
- Task: Visual n-back paradigm (0-back to 3-back).
  - 0-back: Respond to fixed predefined position (minimal cognitive load).
  - 1-back: Match current position to previous trial.
  - 2-back: Match current position to two trials prior.
  - 3-back: Match current position to three trials prior (highest cognitive load).
- Stimuli:
  - 1-second display per trial, preceded by 500 ms blank screen.
  - Total trials: 800 per participant (2 sub-experiments × 100 trials × 4 conditions).
- Randomization: Sub-experiment order randomized to mitigate task-order effects.
Data Acquisition
- EEG System: NeuroScan with SynAmps2 amplifier.
- Parameters:
  - Sampling rate: 1000 Hz.
  - Electrodes: 56 channels (10-20 international system).
- Dataset Details:
  - Categories: 4 (0-/1-/2-/3-back).
  - Trials: 7736.
  - Time steps: 900 per trial.

Dataset Files

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Datasets

Standard Dataset

HHU-N-back Task EEG Dataset

Abstract

Dataset Files

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