Sawagashira Ryo, Tanaka Masaki
Department of Physiology, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, 060-8638, Japan.
Department of Psychiatry, Hokkaido University School of Medicine, Sapporo, 060-8638, Japan.
Commun Biol. 2025 Jun 9;8(1):900. doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-08271-w.
Working memory allows temporary storage and manipulation of information during cognitive tasks. While the primate lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) is involved in working memory, little is known about neuronal activity during memory updating. We trained macaque monkeys on an oculomotor n-back task, requiring them to remember locations of sequentially presented visual stimuli and generate a saccade to the location of the most recent or previous stimulus based on task rules. Many PFC neurons showed transient activity when a memory of a particular stimulus location was no longer needed, whereas others showed sustained activity for remembered locations. Decoding analysis successfully predicted future target selection based on the task rule from neuronal activity, indicating that these neuronal populations contain sufficient information to guide behavior. Furthermore, electrical stimulation at recording sites erased specific spatial memories, demonstrating a causal role of prefrontal neurons in maintaining and updating short-term memory.
工作记忆允许在认知任务期间对信息进行临时存储和处理。虽然灵长类动物的外侧前额叶皮层（PFC）参与工作记忆，但对于记忆更新期间的神经元活动却知之甚少。我们训练猕猴执行一项眼动n-back任务，要求它们记住依次呈现的视觉刺激的位置，并根据任务规则向最近或前一个刺激的位置进行扫视。当不再需要特定刺激位置的记忆时，许多PFC神经元表现出短暂活动，而其他神经元则对记忆的位置表现出持续活动。解码分析基于神经元活动的任务规则成功预测了未来的目标选择，表明这些神经元群体包含足以指导行为的信息。此外，记录部位的电刺激消除了特定的空间记忆，证明前额叶神经元在维持和更新短期记忆中具有因果作用。
