Phase-Dependent Neuronal Coding of Objects in Short-Term Memory
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MIller-2009-Phase-Dependent Neuronal Coding of Objects.pdf
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Author(s)
Siegel, Markus
Warden, Melissa R.
Miller, Earl K.
Date Issued
December 2009
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher
National Academy of Sciences (U.S.)
Citation
Siegel, M., M. R. Warden, and E. K. Miller. “Phase-dependent Neuronal Coding of Objects in Short-term Memory.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106.50 (2009): 21341–21346. Web.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The ability to hold multiple objects in memory is fundamental to intelligent behavior, but its neural basis remains poorly understood. It has been suggested that multiple items may be held in memory by oscillatory activity across neuronal populations, but yet there is little direct evidence. Here, we show that neuronal information about two objects held in short-term memory is enhanced at specific phases of underlying oscillatory population activity. We recorded neuronal activity from the prefrontal cortices of monkeys remembering two visual objects over a brief interval. We found that during this memory interval prefrontal population activity was rhythmically synchronized at frequencies around 32 and 3 Hz and that spikes carried the most information about the memorized objects at specific phases. Further, according to their order of presentation, optimal encoding of the first presented object was significantly earlier in the 32 Hz cycle than that for the second object. Our results suggest that oscillatory neuronal synchronization mediates a phase-dependent coding of memorized objects in the prefrontal cortex. Encoding at distinct phases may play a role for disambiguating information about multiple objects in short-term memory.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0908193106
