Animal Physiology, Institute of Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
Animal Physiology, Institute of Neurobiology, University of Tübingen, Auf der Morgenstelle 28, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
Neuron. 2014 Jul 2;83(1):226-37. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.05.009.
Prefrontal cortex (PFC) and posterior parietal cortex are important for maintaining behaviorally relevant information in working memory. Here, we challenge the commonly held view that suppression of distractors by PFC neurons is the main mechanism underlying the filtering of task-irrelevant information. We recorded single-unit activity from PFC and the ventral intraparietal area (VIP) of monkeys trained to resist distracting stimuli in a delayed-match-to-numerosity task. Surprisingly, PFC neurons preferentially encoded distractors during their presentation. Shortly after this interference, however, PFC neurons restored target information, which predicted correct behavioral decisions. In contrast, most VIP neurons only encoded target numerosities throughout the trial. Representation of target information in VIP was the earliest and most reliable neuronal correlate of behavior. Our data suggest that distracting stimuli can be bypassed by storing and retrieving target information, emphasizing active maintenance processes during working memory with complementary functions for frontal and parietal cortex in controlling memory content.
前额皮质（PFC）和顶后皮质对于在工作记忆中保持与行为相关的信息非常重要。在这里，我们挑战了普遍存在的观点，即 PFC 神经元对干扰物的抑制是过滤与任务不相关信息的主要机制。我们记录了猴子在延迟匹配到数量任务中抵制分心刺激时 PFC 和腹侧顶内区（VIP）的单个神经元的活动。令人惊讶的是，PFC 神经元在干扰物呈现期间优先编码干扰物。然而，在此干扰之后不久，PFC 神经元就恢复了目标信息，这预测了正确的行为决策。相比之下，大多数 VIP 神经元在整个试验中只编码目标数量。在 VIP 中目标信息的表示是最早和最可靠的行为神经元相关性。我们的数据表明，通过存储和检索目标信息可以绕过干扰刺激，这强调了工作记忆中主动维持过程的重要性，前额皮质和顶后皮质在控制记忆内容方面具有互补的功能。
