Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Department of Neurobiology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2020 Mar;24(3):242-258. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2019.12.014. Epub 2020 Jan 29.
A traditional view of short-term working memory (STM) is that task-relevant information is maintained 'online' in persistent spiking activity. However, recent experimental and modeling studies have begun to question this long-held belief. In this review, we discuss new evidence demonstrating that information can be 'silently' maintained via short-term synaptic plasticity (STSP) without the need for persistent activity. We discuss how the neural mechanisms underlying STM are inextricably linked with the cognitive demands of the task, such that the passive maintenance and the active manipulation of information are subserved differently in the brain. Together, these recent findings point towards a more nuanced view of STM in which multiple substrates work in concert to support our ability to temporarily maintain and manipulate information.
短期工作记忆（STM）的传统观点认为，与任务相关的信息通过持续的尖峰活动在“在线”中保持。然而，最近的实验和建模研究开始质疑这一长期以来的观点。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了新的证据，这些证据表明信息可以通过短期突触可塑性（STSP）“静默”地保持，而不需要持续的活动。我们讨论了支持 STM 的神经机制与任务的认知需求是如何不可分割地联系在一起的，以至于信息的被动维持和主动操作在大脑中是不同的。这些最近的发现共同指向了对 STM 的更细致的看法，即多个基质协同工作，以支持我们暂时维持和操作信息的能力。
