Persistent neural activity in auditory cortex is related to auditory working memory in humans and nonhuman primates
- Leibniz Institute for Neurobiology, Germany
Abstract
Working memory is the cognitive capacity of short-term storage of information for goal-directed behaviors. Where and how this capacity is implemented in the brain are unresolved questions. We show that auditory cortex stores information by persistent changes of neural activity. We separated activity related to working memory from activity related to other mental processes by having humans and monkeys perform different tasks with varying working memory demands on the same sound sequences. Working memory was reflected in the spiking activity of individual neurons in auditory cortex and in the activity of neuronal populations, that is, in local field potentials and magnetic fields. Our results provide direct support for the idea that temporary storage of information recruits the same brain areas that also process the information. Because similar activity was observed in the two species, the cellular bases of some auditory working memory processes in humans can be studied in monkeys.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (He 1721/10-1, He 1721/10-2, SFB TR 31, A4)
- Peter Heil
- Reinhard König
- Michael Brosch
LIN special project
- Peter Heil
- Reinhard König
- Michael Brosch
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Animal experimentation: The experiments were approved by the authority for animal care and ethics of the federal state of Saxony-Anhalt (No. 28-42502-2-1129IfN), and conformed to the rules for animal experimentation of the European Communities Council Directive (86/609/EEC).
Human subjects: All subjects gave their written informed consent to participate in the studies which were approved by the ethics committee of the Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg.
Copyright
© 2016, Huang et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Persistent neural activity in auditory cortex is related to auditory working memory in humans and nonhuman primates
eLife 5:e15441.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.15441
