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Deutsch P, Czoschke S, Fischer C, Kaiser J, Bledowski C. Decoding of Working Memory Contents in Auditory Cortex Is Not Distractor-Resistant. J Neurosci 2023; 43:3284-3293. [PMID: 36944488 PMCID: PMC10162453 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.1890-22.2023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2022] [Revised: 02/16/2023] [Accepted: 03/08/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Working memory enables the temporary storage of relevant information in the service of behavior. Neuroimaging studies have suggested that sensory cortex is involved in maintaining contents in working memory. This raised the question of how sensory regions maintain memory representations during the exposure to distracting stimuli. Multivariate pattern analysis of fMRI signals in visual cortex has shown that the contents of visual working memory could be decoded concurrently with passively viewed distractors. The present fMRI study tested whether this finding extends to auditory working memory and to active distractor processing. We asked participants to memorize the pitch of a target sound and to compare it with a probe sound presented after a 13 s delay period. In separate conditions, we compared a blank delay phase (no distraction) with either passive listening to, or active processing of, an auditory distractor presented throughout the memory delay. Consistent with previous reports, pitch-specific memory information could be decoded in auditory cortex during the delay in trials without distraction. In contrast, decoding of target sounds in early auditory cortex dropped to chance level during both passive and active distraction. This was paralleled by memory performance decrements under distraction. Extending the analyses beyond sensory cortex yielded some evidence for memory content-specific activity in inferior frontal and superior parietal cortex during active distraction. In summary, while our findings question the involvement of early auditory cortex in the maintenance of distractor-resistant working memory contents, further research should elucidate the role of hierarchically higher regions.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Information about sensory features held in working memory can be read out from hemodynamic activity recorded in human sensory cortices. Moreover, visual cortex can in parallel store visual content and process newly incoming, task-irrelevant visual input. The present study investigated the role of auditory cortex for working memory maintenance under distraction. While memorized sound frequencies could be decoded in auditory cortex in the absence of distraction, auditory distraction during the delay phase impaired memory performance and prevented decoding of information stored in working memory. Apparently, early auditory cortex is not sufficient to represent working memory contents under distraction that impairs performance. However, exploratory analyses indicated that, under distraction, higher-order frontal and parietal regions might contribute to content-specific working memory storage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Philipp Deutsch
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main 60528, Germany
- Brain Imaging Center, Medical Faculty, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, 60528, Germany
| | - Stefan Czoschke
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main 60528, Germany
- Brain Imaging Center, Medical Faculty, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, 60528, Germany
| | - Cora Fischer
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main 60528, Germany
- Brain Imaging Center, Medical Faculty, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, 60528, Germany
| | - Jochen Kaiser
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main 60528, Germany
- Brain Imaging Center, Medical Faculty, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, 60528, Germany
| | - Christoph Bledowski
- Institute of Medical Psychology, Medical Faculty, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main 60528, Germany
- Brain Imaging Center, Medical Faculty, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, 60528, Germany
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Fallon SJ, Mattiesing RM, Dolfen N, Manohar SG, Husain M. Ignoring versus updating in working memory reveal differential roles of attention and feature binding. Cortex 2018; 107:50-63. [PMID: 29402388 PMCID: PMC6181802 DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2017.12.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/15/2017] [Revised: 10/02/2017] [Accepted: 12/21/2017] [Indexed: 11/24/2022]
Abstract
Ignoring distracting information and updating current contents are essential components of working memory (WM). Yet, although both require controlling irrelevant information, it is unclear whether they have the same effects on recall and produce the same level of misbinding errors (incorrectly joining the features of different memoranda). Moreover, the likelihood of misbinding may be affected by the feature similarity between the items already encoded into memory and the information that has to be filtered out (ignored) or updated into memory. Here, we investigate these questions. Participants were sequentially presented with two pairs of arrows. The first pair of arrows always had to be encoded into memory, but the second pair either had to be ignored (ignore condition) or allowed to displace the previously encoded items (update condition). To investigate the effect of similarity on recall, we also varied, in a factorial manner, whether the items that had to be ignored or updated were presented in the same or different colours and/or same or different spatial locations to the original memoranda. By applying a computational model, we were able to quantify the levels of misbinding. Ignoring, but not updating, increased overall recall error as well as misbinding rates, even when accounting for the retention period. This indicates that not all manipulations of attention in WM are equal in terms of their effects on recall and misbinding. Misbinding rates in the ignore condition were affected by the colour and spatial congruence of relevant and irrelevant information to a greater extent than in the update condition. This finding suggests that attentional templates are used to evaluate relevant and irrelevant information in different ways during ignoring and updating. Together, the results suggest that differences between the two functions might occur due to higher levels of attentional compartmentalisation - or protection - during updating compared to ignoring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sean J Fallon
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
| | | | - Nina Dolfen
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Sanjay G Manohar
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
| | - Masud Husain
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK; Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK
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KCNH2-3.1 expression impairs cognition and alters neuronal function in a model of molecular pathology associated with schizophrenia. Mol Psychiatry 2016; 21:1517-1526. [PMID: 26857598 PMCID: PMC4980295 DOI: 10.1038/mp.2015.219] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2014] [Revised: 11/16/2015] [Accepted: 11/24/2015] [Indexed: 12/18/2022]
Abstract
Overexpression in humans of KCNH2-3.1, which encodes a primate-specific and brain-selective isoform of the human ether-a-go-go-related potassium channel, is associated with impaired cognition, inefficient neural processing and schizophrenia. Here, we describe a new mouse model that incorporates the KCNH2-3.1 molecular phenotype. KCNH2-3.1 transgenic mice are viable and display normal sensorimotor behaviors. However, they show alterations in neuronal structure and microcircuit function in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, areas affected in schizophrenia. Specifically, in slice preparations from the CA1 region of the hippocampus, KCNH2-3.1 transgenic mice have fewer mature dendrites and impaired theta burst stimulation long-term potentiation. Abnormal neuronal firing patterns characteristic of the fast deactivation kinetics of the KCNH2-3.1 isoform were also observed in prefrontal cortex. Transgenic mice showed significant deficits in a hippocampal-dependent object location task and a prefrontal cortex-dependent T-maze working memory task. Interestingly, the hippocampal-dependent alterations were not present in juvenile transgenic mice, suggesting a developmental trajectory to the phenotype. Suppressing KCNH2-3.1 expression in adult mice rescues both the behavioral and physiological phenotypes. These data provide insight into the mechanism of association of KCNH2-3.1 with variation in human cognition and neuronal physiology and may explain its role in schizophrenia.
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Audiovisual integration facilitates monkeys' short-term memory. Anim Cogn 2016; 19:799-811. [PMID: 27010716 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-016-0979-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2016] [Revised: 03/12/2016] [Accepted: 03/18/2016] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Many human behaviors are known to benefit from audiovisual integration, including language and communication, recognizing individuals, social decision making, and memory. Exceptionally little is known about the contributions of audiovisual integration to behavior in other primates. The current experiment investigated whether short-term memory in nonhuman primates is facilitated by the audiovisual presentation format. Three macaque monkeys that had previously learned an auditory delayed matching-to-sample (DMS) task were trained to perform a similar visual task, after which they were tested with a concurrent audiovisual DMS task with equal proportions of auditory, visual, and audiovisual trials. Parallel to outcomes in human studies, accuracy was higher and response times were faster on audiovisual trials than either unisensory trial type. Unexpectedly, two subjects exhibited superior unimodal performance on auditory trials, a finding that contrasts with previous studies, but likely reflects their training history. Our results provide the first demonstration of a bimodal memory advantage in nonhuman primates, lending further validation to their use as a model for understanding audiovisual integration and memory processing in humans.
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Arntzen E, Vie A. The Expression of Equivalence Classes Influenced by Distractors During DMTS Test Trials. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2015. [DOI: 10.1080/15021149.2013.11434453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
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Age-related changes in working memory and the ability to ignore distraction. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2015; 112:6515-8. [PMID: 25941369 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1504162112] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
A weakened ability to effectively resist distraction is a potential basis for reduced working memory capacity (WMC) associated with healthy aging. Exploiting data from 29,631 users of a smartphone game, we show that, as age increases, working memory (WM) performance is compromised more by distractors presented during WM maintenance than distractors presented during encoding. However, with increasing age, the ability to exclude distraction at encoding is a better predictor of WMC in the absence of distraction. A significantly greater contribution of distractor filtering at encoding represents a potential compensation for reduced WMC in older age.
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A dual-task paradigm for behavioral and neurobiological studies in nonhuman primates. J Neurosci Methods 2015; 246:1-12. [PMID: 25769271 DOI: 10.1016/j.jneumeth.2015.03.006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/22/2015] [Revised: 02/26/2015] [Accepted: 03/03/2015] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The dual-task paradigm is a procedure in which subjects are asked to perform two behavioral tasks concurrently, each of which involves a distinct goal with a unique stimulus-response association. Due to the heavy demand on subject's cognitive abilities, human studies using this paradigm have provided detailed insights regarding how the components of cognitive systems are functionally organized and implemented. Although dual-task paradigms are widely used in human studies, they are seldom used in nonhuman animal studies. NEW METHOD We propose a novel dual-task paradigm for monkeys that requires the simultaneous performance of two cognitively demanding component tasks, each of which uses an independent effector for behavioral responses (hand and eyes). We provide a detailed description of an optimal training protocol for this paradigm, which has been lacking in the existing literature. RESULTS An analysis of behavioral performance showed that the proposed dual-task paradigm (1) was quickly learned by monkeys (less than 40 sessions) with step-by-step training protocols, (2) produced specific behavioral effects, known as dual-task interference in human studies, and (3) achieved rigid and independent control of the effectors for behavioral responses throughout the trial. COMPARISON WITH EXISTING METHODS The proposed dual-task paradigm has a scalable task structure, in that each of the two component tasks can be easily replaced by other tasks, while preserving the overall structure of the paradigm. CONCLUSIONS This paradigm should be useful for investigating executive control that underlies dual-task performance at both the behavioral and neuronal levels.
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Evidence for working memory storage operations in perceptual cortex. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2014; 14:117-28. [PMID: 24436009 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-013-0246-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Isolating the short-term storage component of working memory (WM) from the myriad of associated executive processes has been an enduring challenge. Recent efforts have identified patterns of activity in visual regions that contain information about items being held in WM. However, it remains unclear (1) whether these representations withstand intervening sensory input and (2) how communication between multimodal association cortex and the unimodal perceptual regions supporting WM representations is involved in WM storage. We present evidence that the features of a face held in WM are stored within face-processing regions, that these representations persist across subsequent sensory input, and that information about the match between sensory input and a memory representation is relayed forward from perceptual to prefrontal regions. Participants were presented with a series of probe faces and indicated whether each probe matched a target face held in WM. We parametrically varied the feature similarity between the probe and target faces. Activity within face-processing regions scaled linearly with the degree of feature similarity between the probe face and the features of the target face, suggesting that the features of the target face were stored in these regions. Furthermore, directed connectivity measures revealed that the direction of information flow that was optimal for performance was from sensory regions that stored the features of the target face to dorsal prefrontal regions, supporting the notion that sensory input is compared to representations stored within perceptual regions and is subsequently relayed forward. Together, these findings indicate that WM storage operations are carried out within perceptual cortex.
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Bigelow J, Rossi B, Poremba A. Neural correlates of short-term memory in primate auditory cortex. Front Neurosci 2014; 8:250. [PMID: 25177266 PMCID: PMC4132374 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2014.00250] [Citation(s) in RCA: 29] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2014] [Accepted: 07/28/2014] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Behaviorally-relevant sounds such as conspecific vocalizations are often available for only a brief amount of time; thus, goal-directed behavior frequently depends on auditory short-term memory (STM). Despite its ecological significance, the neural processes underlying auditory STM remain poorly understood. To investigate the role of the auditory cortex in STM, single- and multi-unit activity was recorded from the primary auditory cortex (A1) of two monkeys performing an auditory STM task using simple and complex sounds. Each trial consisted of a sample and test stimulus separated by a 5-s retention interval. A brief wait period followed the test stimulus, after which subjects pressed a button if the sounds were identical (match trials) or withheld button presses if they were different (non-match trials). A number of units exhibited significant changes in firing rate for portions of the retention interval, although these changes were rarely sustained. Instead, they were most frequently observed during the early and late portions of the retention interval, with inhibition being observed more frequently than excitation. At the population level, responses elicited on match trials were briefly suppressed early in the sound period relative to non-match trials. However, during the latter portion of the sound, firing rates increased significantly for match trials and remained elevated throughout the wait period. Related patterns of activity were observed in prior experiments from our lab in the dorsal temporal pole (dTP) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) of the same animals. The data suggest that early match suppression occurs in both A1 and the dTP, whereas later match enhancement occurs first in the PFC, followed by A1 and later in dTP. Because match enhancement occurs first in the PFC, we speculate that enhancement observed in A1 and dTP may reflect top–down feedback. Overall, our findings suggest that A1 forms part of the larger neural system recruited during auditory STM.
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Affiliation(s)
- James Bigelow
- Department of Psychology, University of Iowa Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Breein Rossi
- Department of Psychology, University of Iowa Iowa City, IA, USA
| | - Amy Poremba
- Department of Psychology, University of Iowa Iowa City, IA, USA
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Bolton DAE, Staines WR. Attention-based modulation of tactile stimuli: a comparison between prefrontal lesion patients and healthy age-matched controls. Neuropsychologia 2014; 57:101-11. [PMID: 24650526 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.03.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2013] [Revised: 03/05/2014] [Accepted: 03/10/2014] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES To investigate the role of the prefrontal cortex in attention-based modulation of cortical somatosensory processing. METHODS Six prefrontal stroke patients were compared with eleven neurologically intact older adults during a vibrotactile discrimination task. All subjects attended to stimuli on one digit while ignoring distracter stimuli on a separate digit of the same hand. Subjects were required to report infrequent targets on the attended digit only. Throughout testing electroencephalography was used to measure event-related potentials for both task-relevant and irrelevant stimuli. RESULTS Prefrontal patients demonstrated significant changes in cortical somatosensory processing based on attention compared to age-matched controls. This was evident both in early unimodal somatosensory processing (i.e. P100) and in later cortical processing stages (i.e. long-latency positivity). Moreover, there was a tendency towards a tonic loss of inhibition over early somatosensory cortical processing (i.e. P50). CONCLUSIONS The attention-based modulation noted for neurologically intact older adults was absent in prefrontal lesion patients. SIGNIFICANCE The present study highlights the important role of prefrontal regions in sustaining inhibition over early sensory cortical processing stages and in modifying somatosensory transmission based on task-relevance. Notably these deficits extend beyond those previously shown to occur as a function of age.
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Affiliation(s)
- David A E Bolton
- Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada; Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery, ON, Canada.
| | - W Richard Staines
- Department of Kinesiology, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada; Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery, ON, Canada
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Wager TD, Spicer J, Insler R, Smith EE. The neural bases of distracter-resistant working memory. COGNITIVE, AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2014; 14:90-105. [PMID: 24366656 PMCID: PMC3972280 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-013-0226-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
A major difference between humans and other animals is our capacity to maintain information in working memory (WM) while performing secondary tasks, which enables sustained, complex cognition. A common assumption is that the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) is critical for WM performance in the presence of distracters, but direct evidence is scarce. We assessed the relationship between fMRI activity and WM performance within subjects, with performance matched across distracter and no-distracter conditions. Activity in the ventrolateral PFC during WM encoding and maintenance positively predicted performance in both conditions, whereas activity in the presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA) predicted performance only under distraction. Other parts of the dorsolateral and ventrolateral PFCs predicted performance only in the no-distracter condition. These findings challenge a lateral-PFC-centered view of distracter resistance, and suggest that the lateral PFC supports a type of WM representation that is efficient for dealing with task-irrelevant input but is, nonetheless, easily disrupted by dual-task demands.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tor D Wager
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, 345 UCB, Boulder, CO, 80309, USA,
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12
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McNab F, Dolan RJ. Dissociating distractor-filtering at encoding and during maintenance. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 2014; 40:960-7. [PMID: 24512609 PMCID: PMC4035130 DOI: 10.1037/a0036013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
The effectiveness of distractor-filtering is a potentially important determinant of working memory capacity (WMC). However, a distinction between the contributions of distractor-filtering at WM encoding as opposed to filtering during maintenance has not been made and the assumption is that these rely on the same mechanism. Within 2 experiments, 1 conducted in the laboratory with 21 participants, and the other played as a game on smartphones (n = 3,247) we measure WMC without distractors, and present distractors during encoding or during the delay period of a WM task to determine performance associated with distraction at encoding and during maintenance. Despite differences in experimental setting and paradigm design between the 2 studies, we show a unique contribution to WMC from both encoding and delay distractor performance in both experiments, while controlling for performance in the absence of distraction. Thus, within 2 separate experiments, 1 involving an extremely large cohort of 3,247 participants, we show a dissociation between encoding and delay distractor-filtering, indicating that separate mechanisms may contribute to WMC.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fiona McNab
- School of Psychology, University of Birmingham
| | - Raymond J Dolan
- Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging, University College London
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Sreenivasan KK, Vytlacil J, D'Esposito M. Distributed and dynamic storage of working memory stimulus information in extrastriate cortex. J Cogn Neurosci 2014; 26:1141-53. [PMID: 24392897 DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_00556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 96] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
The predominant neurobiological model of working memory (WM) posits that stimulus information is stored via stable, elevated activity within highly selective neurons. On the basis of this model, which we refer to as the canonical model, the storage of stimulus information is largely associated with lateral PFC (lPFC). A growing number of studies describe results that cannot be fully explained by the canonical model, suggesting that it is in need of revision. In this study, we directly tested key elements of the canonical model. We analyzed fMRI data collected as participants performed a task requiring WM for faces and scenes. Multivariate decoding procedures identified patterns of activity containing information about the items maintained in WM (faces, scenes, or both). Although information about WM items was identified in extrastriate visual cortex (EC) and lPFC, only EC exhibited a pattern of results consistent with a sensory representation. Information in both regions persisted even in the absence of elevated activity, suggesting that elevated population activity may not represent the storage of information in WM. Additionally, we observed that WM information was distributed across EC neural populations that exhibited a broad range of selectivity for the WM items rather than restricted to highly selective EC populations. Finally, we determined that activity patterns coding for WM information were not stable, but instead varied over the course of a trial, indicating that the neural code for WM information is dynamic rather than static. Together, these findings challenge the canonical model of WM.
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Gogulski J, Boldt R, Savolainen P, Guzmán-López J, Carlson S, Pertovaara A. A Segregated Neural Pathway for Prefrontal Top-Down Control of Tactile Discrimination. Cereb Cortex 2013; 25:161-6. [DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bht211] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
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Poremba A, Bigelow J, Rossi B. Processing of communication sounds: contributions of learning, memory, and experience. Hear Res 2013; 305:31-44. [PMID: 23792078 DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2013.06.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2012] [Revised: 05/09/2013] [Accepted: 06/10/2013] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Abundant evidence from both field and lab studies has established that conspecific vocalizations (CVs) are of critical ecological significance for a wide variety of species, including humans, non-human primates, rodents, and other mammals and birds. Correspondingly, a number of experiments have demonstrated behavioral processing advantages for CVs, such as in discrimination and memory tasks. Further, a wide range of experiments have described brain regions in many species that appear to be specialized for processing CVs. For example, several neural regions have been described in both mammals and birds wherein greater neural responses are elicited by CVs than by comparison stimuli such as heterospecific vocalizations, nonvocal complex sounds, and artificial stimuli. These observations raise the question of whether these regions reflect domain-specific neural mechanisms dedicated to processing CVs, or alternatively, if these regions reflect domain-general neural mechanisms for representing complex sounds of learned significance. Inasmuch as CVs can be viewed as complex combinations of basic spectrotemporal features, the plausibility of the latter position is supported by a large body of literature describing modulated cortical and subcortical representation of a variety of acoustic features that have been experimentally associated with stimuli of natural behavioral significance (such as food rewards). Herein, we review a relatively small body of existing literature describing the roles of experience, learning, and memory in the emergence of species-typical neural representations of CVs and auditory system plasticity. In both songbirds and mammals, manipulations of auditory experience as well as specific learning paradigms are shown to modulate neural responses evoked by CVs, either in terms of overall firing rate or temporal firing patterns. In some cases, CV-sensitive neural regions gradually acquire representation of non-CV stimuli with which subjects have training and experience. These results parallel literature in humans describing modulation of responses in face-sensitive neural regions through learning and experience. Thus, although many questions remain, the available evidence is consistent with the notion that CVs may acquire distinct neural representation through domain-general mechanisms for representing complex auditory objects that are of learned importance to the animal. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled "Communication Sounds and the Brain: New Directions and Perspectives".
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Affiliation(s)
- Amy Poremba
- University of Iowa, Dept. of Psychology, Div. Behavioral & Cognitive Neuroscience, E11 SSH, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA; University of Iowa, Neuroscience Program, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA.
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Prefrontal attention and multiple reference frames during working memory in primates. CHINESE SCIENCE BULLETIN-CHINESE 2013. [DOI: 10.1007/s11434-012-5462-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
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17
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Bolton DA, Staines WR. Age-related loss in attention-based modulation of tactile stimuli at early stages of somatosensory processing. Neuropsychologia 2012; 50:1502-13. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2012.03.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2011] [Revised: 02/25/2012] [Accepted: 03/01/2012] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
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18
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Zaitsev AV, Povysheva NV, Gonzalez-Burgos G, Lewis DA. Electrophysiological classes of layer 2/3 pyramidal cells in monkey prefrontal cortex. J Neurophysiol 2012; 108:595-609. [PMID: 22496534 DOI: 10.1152/jn.00859.2011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
The activity of supragranular pyramidal neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) neurons is hypothesized to be a key contributor to the cellular basis of working memory in primates. Therefore, the intrinsic membrane properties, a crucial determinant of a neuron's functional properties, are important for the role of DLPFC pyramidal neurons in working memory. The present study aimed to investigate the biophysical properties of pyramidal cells in layer 2/3 of monkey DLPFC to create an unbiased electrophysiological classification of these cells. Whole cell voltage recordings in the slice preparation were performed in 77 pyramidal cells, and 24 electrophysiological measures of their passive and active intrinsic membrane properties were analyzed. Based on the results of cluster analysis of 16 independent electrophysiological variables, 4 distinct electrophysiological classes of monkey pyramidal cells were determined. Two classes contain regular-spiking neurons with low and high excitability and constitute 52% of the pyramidal cells sampled. These subclasses of regular-spiking neurons mostly differ in their input resistance, minimum current that evoked firing, and current-to-frequency transduction properties. A third class of pyramidal cells includes low-threshold spiking cells (17%), which fire a burst of three-five spikes followed by regular firing at all suprathreshold current intensities. The last class consists of cells with an intermediate firing pattern (31%). These cells have two modes of firing response, regular spiking and bursting discharge, depending on the strength of stimulation and resting membrane potential. Our results show that diversity in the functional properties of DLPFC pyramidal cells may contribute to heterogeneous modes of information processing during working memory and other cognitive operations that engage the activity of cortical circuits in the superficial layers of the DLPFC.
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Affiliation(s)
- A V Zaitsev
- Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Saint-Petersburg, Russia.
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