Cavanagh, SE;
Towers, JP;
Wallis, JD;
Hunt, LT;
Kennerley, SW;
(2017)
Reconciling persistent and dynamic hypotheses of working memory coding in prefrontal cortex.
bioRxiv
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Abstract
Competing accounts propose that working memory (WM) is subserved either by persistent activity in single neurons or by dynamic (time-varying) activity across a neural population. Here we compare these hypotheses across four regions of prefrontal cortex (PFC) in a spatial WM task, where an intervening distractor indicated the reward available for a correct saccade. WM representations were strongest in ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC) neurons with higher intrinsic temporal stability (time constant). At the population-level, although a stable mnemonic state was reached during the delay, this tuning geometry was reversed relative to cue-period selectivity, and was disrupted by the distractor. Single-neuron analysis revealed many neurons switched to coding reward, rather than maintaining task-relevant spatial selectivity until saccade. These results imply WM is fulfilled by dynamic, population-level activity within high time-constant neurons. Rather than persistent activity upporting stable mnemonic representations that bridge distraction, PFC neurons may stabilise a dynamic population-level process that supports WM.
Type: | Working / discussion paper |
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Title: | Reconciling persistent and dynamic hypotheses of working memory coding in prefrontal cortex |
Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
Language: | English |
Additional information: | The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) |
UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences |
URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10054059 |
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