Functional specialization and interaction in the amygdala-hippocampus circuit during working memory processing

Jin Li, Dan Cao, Shan Yu, Xinyu Xiao, Lukas Imbach, Lennart Stieglitz, Johannes Sarnthein () and Tianzi Jiang ()
Additional contact information
Jin Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Dan Cao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shan Yu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xinyu Xiao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lukas Imbach: Klinik Lengg
Lennart Stieglitz: University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich
Johannes Sarnthein: University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich
Tianzi Jiang: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Abstract Both the hippocampus and amygdala are involved in working memory (WM) processing. However, their specific role in WM is still an open question. Here, we simultaneously recorded intracranial EEG from the amygdala and hippocampus of epilepsy patients while performing a WM task, and compared their representation patterns during the encoding and maintenance periods. By combining multivariate representational analysis and connectivity analyses with machine learning methods, our results revealed a functional specialization of the amygdala-hippocampal circuit: The mnemonic representations in the amygdala were highly distinct and decreased from encoding to maintenance. The hippocampal representations, however, were more similar across different items but remained stable in the absence of the stimulus. WM encoding and maintenance were associated with bidirectional information flow between the amygdala and the hippocampus in low-frequency bands (1–40 Hz). Furthermore, the decoding accuracy on WM load was higher by using representational features in the amygdala during encoding and in the hippocampus during maintenance, and by using information flow from the amygdala during encoding and that from the hippocampus during maintenance, respectively. Taken together, our study reveals that WM processing is associated with functional specialization and interaction within the amygdala-hippocampus circuit.

Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-38571-w Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:14:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-023-38571-w

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38571-w

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().