Interplay between persistent activity and activity-silent dynamics in the prefrontal cortex underlies serial biases in working memory.

ABSTRACT: Persistent neuronal spiking has long been considered the mechanism underlying working memory, but recent proposals argue for alternative 'activity-silent' substrates. Using monkey and human electrophysiology data, we show here that attractor dynamics that control neural spiking during mnemonic periods interact with activity-silent mechanisms in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). This interaction allows memory reactivations, which enhance serial biases in spatial working memory. Stimulus information was not decodable between trials, but remained present in activity-silent traces inferred from spiking synchrony in the PFC. Just before the new stimulus, this latent trace was reignited into activity that recapitulated the previous stimulus representation. Importantly, the reactivation strength corre

SUBMITTER: Barbosa J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7392810 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature