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Cortical feedback loops bind distributed representations of working memory

Voitov, Ivan; Mrsic-Flogel, Thomas D; (2022) Cortical feedback loops bind distributed representations of working memory. Nature , 608 pp. 381-389. 10.1038/s41586-022-05014-3. Green open access

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Abstract

Working memory—the brain’s ability to internalize information and use it flexibly to guide behaviour—is an essential component of cognition. Although activity related to working memory has been observed in several brain regions, how neural populations actually represent working memory and the mechanisms by which this activity is maintained remain unclear. Here we describe the neural implementation of visual working memory in mice alternating between a delayed non-match-to-sample task and a simple discrimination task that does not require working memory but has identical stimulus, movement and reward statistics. Transient optogenetic inactivations revealed that distributed areas of the neocortex were required selectively for the maintenance of working memory. Population activity in visual area AM and premotor area M2 during the delay period was dominated by orderly low-dimensional dynamics that were, however, independent of working memory. Instead, working memory representations were embedded in high-dimensional population activity, present in both cortical areas, persisted throughout the inter-stimulus delay period, and predicted behavioural responses during the working memory task. To test whether the distributed nature of working memory was dependent on reciprocal interactions between cortical regions, we silenced one cortical area (AM or M2) while recording the feedback it received from the other. Transient inactivation of either area led to the selective disruption of inter-areal communication of working memory. Therefore, reciprocally interconnected cortical areas maintain bound high-dimensional representations of working memory.

Type: Article
Title: Cortical feedback loops bind distributed representations of working memory
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05014-3
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05014-3
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s) 2022 This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Keywords: Cognitive neuroscience, Neural circuits
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Life Sciences > The Sainsbury Wellcome Centre
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10153545
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