State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning & IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China.
Sci Adv. 2024 Jun 14;10(24):eadk3953. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adk3953.
The human ability to perceive vivid memories as if they "float" before our eyes, even in the absence of actual visual stimuli, captivates the imagination. To determine the neural substrates underlying visual memories, we investigated the neuronal representation of working memory content in the primary visual cortex of monkeys. Our study revealed that neurons exhibit unique responses to different memory contents, using firing patterns distinct from those observed during the perception of external visual stimuli. Moreover, this neuronal representation evolves with alterations in the recalled content and extends beyond the retinotopic areas typically reserved for processing external visual input. These discoveries shed light on the visual encoding of memories and indicate avenues for understanding the remarkable power of the mind's eye.
人类有一种能力，可以将生动的记忆视为“漂浮”在眼前，即使没有实际的视觉刺激也是如此，这令人着迷。为了确定视觉记忆的神经基础，我们研究了猴子初级视觉皮层中工作记忆内容的神经元表示。我们的研究表明，神经元对不同的记忆内容表现出独特的反应，其反应模式与对外界视觉刺激的感知过程中观察到的模式明显不同。此外，这种神经元表示随着回忆内容的变化而变化，并超出了通常用于处理外部视觉输入的视网膜区域。这些发现揭示了记忆的视觉编码，并为理解心灵之眼的非凡力量提供了途径。
