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Roshanaei M, Bahmani Z, Clark K, Daliri MR, Noudoost B. Working memory expedites the processing of visual signals within the extrastriate cortex. iScience 2024; 27:110489. [PMID: 39100691 PMCID: PMC11295472 DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2024.110489] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2023] [Revised: 01/03/2024] [Accepted: 07/09/2024] [Indexed: 08/06/2024] Open
Abstract
Working memory is the ability to maintain information in the absence of sensory input. In this study, we investigated how working memory benefits processing in visual areas. Using a measure of phase consistency to detect the arrival time of visual signals to the middle temporal (MT) area, we assessed the impact of working memory on the speed of sensory processing. We recorded from MT neurons in two monkeys during a spatial working memory task with visual probes. When the memorized location closely matches the receptive field center of the recording site, visual input arrives sooner, but if the memorized location does not match the receptive field center then the arrival of visual information is delayed. Thus, working memory expedites the arrival of visual input in MT. These results reveal that even in the absence of firing rate changes, working memory can still benefit the processing of information within sensory areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Majid Roshanaei
- Biomedical Engineering Department, School of Electrical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak, P.O. Box 16846-13114, Tehran, Iran
| | - Zahra Bahmani
- Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran 1411713116, Iran
| | - Kelsey Clark
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA
| | - Mohammad Reza Daliri
- Biomedical Engineering Department, School of Electrical Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology (IUST), Narmak, P.O. Box 16846-13114, Tehran, Iran
| | - Behrad Noudoost
- Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84132, USA
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Pasternak T, Tadin D. Linking Neuronal Direction Selectivity to Perceptual Decisions About Visual Motion. Annu Rev Vis Sci 2021; 6:335-362. [PMID: 32936737 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-vision-121219-081816] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Psychophysical and neurophysiological studies of responses to visual motion have converged on a consistent set of general principles that characterize visual processing of motion information. Both types of approaches have shown that the direction and speed of target motion are among the most important encoded stimulus properties, revealing many parallels between psychophysical and physiological responses to motion. Motivated by these parallels, this review focuses largely on more direct links between the key feature of the neuronal response to motion, direction selectivity, and its utilization in memory-guided perceptual decisions. These links were established during neuronal recordings in monkeys performing direction discriminations, but also by examining perceptual effects of widespread elimination of cortical direction selectivity produced by motion deprivation during development. Other approaches, such as microstimulation and lesions, have documented the importance of direction-selective activity in the areas that are active during memory-guided direction comparisons, area MT and the prefrontal cortex, revealing their likely interactions during behavioral tasks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tatiana Pasternak
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA; , .,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.,Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.,Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA
| | - Duje Tadin
- Department of Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA; , .,Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.,Center for Visual Science, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.,Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA.,Department of Ophthalmology, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14642, USA
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Interhemispheric transfer of working memories. Neuron 2021; 109:1055-1066.e4. [PMID: 33561399 PMCID: PMC9134350 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2021.01.016] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2020] [Revised: 12/17/2020] [Accepted: 01/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Viswanathan P, Nieder A. Spatial Neuronal Integration Supports a Global Representation of Visual Numerosity in Primate Association Cortices. J Cogn Neurosci 2020; 32:1184-1197. [DOI: 10.1162/jocn_a_01548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
Abstract
Our sense of number rests on the activity of neurons that are tuned to the number of items and show great invariance across display formats and modalities. Whether numerosity coding becomes abstracted from local spatial representations characteristic of visual input is not known. We mapped the visual receptive fields (RFs) of numerosity-selective neurons in the pFC and ventral intraparietal area in rhesus monkeys. We found numerosity selectivity in pFC and ventral intraparietal neurons irrespective of whether they exhibited an RF and independent of the location of their RFs. RFs were not predictive of the preference of numerosity-selective neurons. Furthermore, the presence and location of RFs had no impact on tuning width and quality of the numerosity-selective neurons. These findings show that neurons in frontal and parietal cortices integrate abstract visuospatial stimuli to give rise to global and spatially released number representations as required for number perception.
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Cortical processes underlying the effects of static sound timing on perceived visual speed. Neuroimage 2019; 199:194-205. [DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.05.062] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2019] [Revised: 04/09/2019] [Accepted: 05/24/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
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Duong L, Leavitt M, Pieper F, Sachs A, Martinez-Trujillo J. A Normalization Circuit Underlying Coding of Spatial Attention in Primate Lateral Prefrontal Cortex. eNeuro 2019; 6:ENEURO.0301-18.2019. [PMID: 31001577 PMCID: PMC6469883 DOI: 10.1523/eneuro.0301-18.2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2018] [Revised: 02/14/2019] [Accepted: 02/25/2019] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) neurons signal the allocation of voluntary attention; however, the neural computations underlying this function remain unknown. To investigate this, we recorded from neuronal ensembles in the LPFC of two Macaca fascicularis performing a visuospatial attention task. LPFC neural responses to a single stimulus were normalized when additional stimuli/distracters appeared across the visual field and were well-characterized by an averaging computation. Deploying attention toward an individual stimulus surrounded by distracters shifted neural activity from an averaging regime toward a regime similar to that when the attended stimulus was presented in isolation (winner-take-all; WTA). However, attentional modulation is both qualitatively and quantitatively dependent on a neuron's visuospatial tuning. Our results show that during attentive vision, LPFC neuronal ensemble activity can be robustly read out by downstream areas to generate motor commands, and/or fed back into sensory areas to filter out distracter signals in favor of target signals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lyndon Duong
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
- Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario N6A 5B7, Canada
| | - Matthew Leavitt
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
- Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario N6A 5B7, Canada
- Department of Physiology, McGill University, Quebec H3A 0G4, Canada Montreal
| | - Florian Pieper
- Department of Neurophysiology and Pathophysiology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg 52 20246, Germany
| | - Adam Sachs
- The Ottawa Hospital, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario K1H 8L6, Canada
| | - Julio Martinez-Trujillo
- Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Western University, London, Ontario N6A 3K7, Canada
- Robarts Research Institute, London, Ontario N6A 5B7, Canada
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de Haan R, Lim J, van der Burg SA, Pieneman AW, Nigade V, Mansvelder HD, de Kock CPJ. Neural Representation of Motor Output, Context and Behavioral Adaptation in Rat Medial Prefrontal Cortex During Learned Behavior. Front Neural Circuits 2018; 12:75. [PMID: 30327591 PMCID: PMC6174330 DOI: 10.3389/fncir.2018.00075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2018] [Accepted: 09/04/2018] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Selecting behavioral outputs in a dynamic environment is the outcome of integrating multiple information streams and weighing possible action outcomes with their value. Integration depends on the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), but how mPFC neurons encode information necessary for appropriate behavioral adaptation is poorly understood. To identify spiking patterns of mPFC during learned behavior, we extracellularly recorded neuronal action potential firing in the mPFC of rats performing a whisker-based "Go"/"No-go" object localization task. First, we identify three functional groups of neurons, which show different degrees of spiking modulation during task performance. One group increased spiking activity during correct "Go" behavior (positively modulated), the second group decreased spiking (negatively modulated) and one group did not change spiking. Second, the relative change in spiking was context-dependent and largest when motor output had contextual value. Third, the negatively modulated population spiked more when rats updated behavior following an error compared to trials without integration of error information. Finally, insufficient spiking in the positively modulated population predicted erroneous behavior under dynamic "No-go" conditions. Thus, mPFC neuronal populations with opposite spike modulation characteristics differentially encode context and behavioral updating and enable flexible integration of error corrections in future actions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Roel de Haan
- Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Judith Lim
- Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Sven A van der Burg
- Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Anton W Pieneman
- Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Vinod Nigade
- Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Huibert D Mansvelder
- Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
| | - Christiaan P J de Kock
- Center for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Christophel TB, Klink PC, Spitzer B, Roelfsema PR, Haynes JD. The Distributed Nature of Working Memory. Trends Cogn Sci 2017; 21:111-124. [PMID: 28063661 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2016.12.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 422] [Impact Index Per Article: 60.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2016] [Revised: 12/03/2016] [Accepted: 12/07/2016] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Studies in humans and non-human primates have provided evidence for storage of working memory contents in multiple regions ranging from sensory to parietal and prefrontal cortex. We discuss potential explanations for these distributed representations: (i) features in sensory regions versus prefrontal cortex differ in the level of abstractness and generalizability; and (ii) features in prefrontal cortex reflect representations that are transformed for guidance of upcoming behavioral actions. We propose that the propensity to produce persistent activity is a general feature of cortical networks. Future studies may have to shift focus from asking where working memory can be observed in the brain to how a range of specialized brain areas together transform sensory information into a delayed behavioral response.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas B Christophel
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany; Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany; Clinic for Neurology, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany.
| | - P Christiaan Klink
- Department of Neuromodulation & Behaviour, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Vision & Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Bernhard Spitzer
- Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | - Pieter R Roelfsema
- Department of Vision & Cognition, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, the Netherlands; Department of Psychiatry, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Department of Integrative Neurophysiology, Centre for Neurogenomics and Cognitive Research, VU University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - John-Dylan Haynes
- Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany; Berlin Center for Advanced Neuroimaging, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany; Clinic for Neurology, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany; Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt Universität, Berlin, Germany; Cluster of Excellence NeuroCure, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany; Department of Psychology, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
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