Speaker
Description
For decades, several studies using a wide range of approaches attributed a pivotal role to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) for maintaining multiple information during memory periods in working memory (WM). However, there is still a heated debate about the neural schema involved in WM maintenance of information over time, with the classical doctrine proposing a persistent coding mechanism and static population scheme as opposed to more recent evidence that argues in favor of a transient coding mechanism and dynamic population scheme. Using a strategy task where two macaques had to implement an abstract response strategy and subsequently hold their choice in WM during a delay period preceding the execution of the choice-based action, we investigated the coding scheme implemented by cell type populations (GABAergic interneurons and pyramidal neurons), previously classified. Furthermore, to evaluate the specificity of the coding scheme investigated during the memory period, we analyzed an additional epoch of the task following the execution of the choice-based action. We first found that both cell types contributed to maintaining the choice information in the WM period, with a surprisingly greater contribution from the interneuron population. Next, we applied a machine learning algorithm to assess the similarity of the population activity patterns over time. We found that PFC implemented a mixed coding scheme: static for pyramidal neurons and dynamic for interneurons. Such stability for pyramidal neurons was memory-period specific and then switched to a dynamic scheme thereafter, whereas interneurons maintained a continuous dynamicity even after the memory period.
| If you're submitting a poster, would you be interested in giving a blitz talk? | No |
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| If you're submitting a symposium talk, what's the symposium title? | Understanding Memory: Implications from neuronal to clinical populations |
| If you're submitting a symposium, or a talk that is part of a symposium, is this a junior symposium? | No |
