Sharp emergence of feature-selective sustained activity along the dorsal visual pathway.

ABSTRACT: Sustained activity encoding visual working memory representations has been observed in several cortical areas of primates. Where along the visual pathways this activity emerges remains unknown. Here we show in macaques that sustained spiking activity encoding memorized visual motion directions is absent in direction-selective neurons in early visual area middle temporal (MT). However, it is robustly present immediately downstream, in multimodal association area medial superior temporal (MST), as well as and in the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC). This sharp emergence of sustained activity along the dorsal visual pathway suggests a functional boundary between early visual areas, which encode sensory inputs, and downstream association areas, which additionally encode mnemonic representation

SUBMITTER: Mendoza-Halliday D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4978542 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature