Reduced variability of bursting activity during working memory
Name
s41598-022-18577-y.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
2.02 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
819fcf03771ff4392df11d9e9fe83249
Author(s)
Lundqvist, Mikael
Rose, Jonas
Brincat, Scott L
Warden, Melissa R
Buschman, Timothy J
Herman, Pawel
Miller, Earl K
Date Issued
2022
Journal
Scientific Reports
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Citation
Lundqvist, Mikael, Rose, Jonas, Brincat, Scott L, Warden, Melissa R, Buschman, Timothy J et al. 2022. "Reduced variability of bursting activity during working memory." Scientific Reports, 12 (1).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
AbstractWorking memories have long been thought to be maintained by persistent spiking. However, mounting evidence from multiple-electrode recording (and single-trial analyses) shows that the underlying spiking is better characterized by intermittent bursts of activity. A counterargument suggested this intermittent activity is at odds with observations that spike-time variability reduces during task performance. However, this counterargument rests on assumptions, such as randomness in the timing of the bursts, which may not be correct. Thus, we analyzed spiking and LFPs from monkeys’ prefrontal cortex (PFC) to determine if task-related reductions in variability can co-exist with intermittent spiking. We found that it does because both spiking and associated gamma bursts were task-modulated, not random. In fact, the task-related reduction in spike variability could largely be explained by a related reduction in gamma burst variability. Our results provide further support for the intermittent activity models of working memory as well as novel mechanistic insights into how spike variability is reduced during cognitive tasks.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/S41598-022-18577-Y
