Perirhinal Cortex Neuronal Activity is Actively Related toWorking Memory in the Macaque

[摘要] Lesion studies suggest that the perirhinaicortex plays a role in object recognition memory.To analyze its role, we recorded the activity ofsingle neurons in the perirhinal cortex in arhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta) performing adelayed matching-to-sample task with up to fourintervening stimuli. Certain neurons (40 of 90analyzed) showed a smaller response to an imagewhen it was shown the second time within a trial(as a match image) than when it had been shown(as a sample image) the first time. A new findingwas that the perirhinal cortex neurons wereactively reset between trials: when a particularimage was shown as a sample on a succeedingtrial, the response was much larger than when ithad been shown as a match image a short timepreviously on the previous trial. This resettingbetween trials appears to reflect the operation ofan active working memory process rather than apassive temporal decay in a neuronal response.The results thus provide evidence that theperirhinal cortex plays an active role in visualworking memory, perhaps in association withother brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex.

[学科分类] 精神健康和精神病学