Frontotemporal coordination predicts working memory performance and its local neural signatures

Ehsan Rezayat, Mohammad-Reza A. Dehaqani (), Kelsey Clark, Zahra Bahmani, Tirin Moore and Behrad Noudoost ()
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Ehsan Rezayat: School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM)
Mohammad-Reza A. Dehaqani: School of Cognitive Sciences, Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (IPM)
Kelsey Clark: University of Utah
Zahra Bahmani: Tarbiat Modares University
Tirin Moore: Department of Neurobiology Stanford University
Behrad Noudoost: University of Utah

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Neurons in some sensory areas reflect the content of working memory (WM) in their spiking activity. However, this spiking activity is seldom related to behavioral performance. We studied the responses of inferotemporal (IT) neurons, which exhibit object-selective activity, along with Frontal Eye Field (FEF) neurons, which exhibit spatially selective activity, during the delay period of an object WM task. Unlike the spiking activity and local field potentials (LFPs) within these areas, which were poor predictors of behavioral performance, the phase-locking of IT spikes and LFPs with the beta band of FEF LFPs robustly predicted successful WM maintenance. In addition, IT neurons exhibited greater object-selective persistent activity when their spikes were locked to the phase of FEF LFPs. These results reveal that the coordination between prefrontal and temporal cortex predicts the successful maintenance of visual information during WM.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21151-1

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