Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Reduced variability of bursting activity during working memory

Mikael Lundqvist, Jonas Rose, View ORCID ProfileMelissa Warden, View ORCID ProfileTim Buschman, Pawel Herman, Earl Miller
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.18.481088
Mikael Lundqvist
1Department of Psychology, Department of clinical neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Solna, Sweden
2The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: ekmiller@mit.edu
Jonas Rose
2The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
3Faculty of Psychology, Neural Basis of Learning, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801, Bochum, Germany
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Melissa Warden
2The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
4Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Melissa Warden
Tim Buschman
2The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
5Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Washington Rd., Princeton, NJ 08540, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Tim Buschman
Pawel Herman
6Department of Computational Science and Technology, School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Digital Futures, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, 100 44, Sweden
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Earl Miller
2The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA, 02139, USA
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: ekmiller@mit.edu
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

Working 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, that may not be correct. Thus, we analyzed spiking and LFPs from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of monkeys 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 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.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

  • ↵* co-senior authors

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted February 18, 2022.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Reduced variability of bursting activity during working memory
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Reduced variability of bursting activity during working memory
Mikael Lundqvist, Jonas Rose, Melissa Warden, Tim Buschman, Pawel Herman, Earl Miller
bioRxiv 2022.02.18.481088; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.18.481088
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Reduced variability of bursting activity during working memory
Mikael Lundqvist, Jonas Rose, Melissa Warden, Tim Buschman, Pawel Herman, Earl Miller
bioRxiv 2022.02.18.481088; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.02.18.481088

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Neuroscience
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4232)
  • Biochemistry (9128)
  • Bioengineering (6774)
  • Bioinformatics (23989)
  • Biophysics (12117)
  • Cancer Biology (9522)
  • Cell Biology (13772)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7627)
  • Ecology (11686)
  • Epidemiology (2066)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15504)
  • Genetics (10638)
  • Genomics (14322)
  • Immunology (9477)
  • Microbiology (22832)
  • Molecular Biology (9089)
  • Neuroscience (48954)
  • Paleontology (355)
  • Pathology (1480)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2568)
  • Physiology (3844)
  • Plant Biology (8327)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1471)
  • Synthetic Biology (2296)
  • Systems Biology (6186)
  • Zoology (1300)