RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Beyond dimension reduction: Stable electric fields emerge from and allow representational drift JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2021.08.22.457247 DO 10.1101/2021.08.22.457247 A1 Dimitris A. Pinotsis A1 Earl K. Miller YR 2022 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/01/04/2021.08.22.457247.abstract AB It is known that the exact neurons maintaining a given memory (the neural ensemble) change from trial to trial. This raises the question of how the brain achieves stability in the face of this representational drift. Here, we demonstrate that this stability emerges at the level of the electric fields that arise from neural activity. We show that electric fields carry information about working memory content. The electric fields, in turn, can act as “guard rails” that funnel higher dimensional variable neural activity along stable lower dimensional routes. We obtained the latent space associated with each memory. We then confirmed the stability of the electric field by mapping the latent space to different cortical patches (that comprise a neural ensemble) and reconstructing information flow between patches. Stable electric fields can allow latent states to be transferred between brain areas, in accord with modern engram theory.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.