Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

0 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

Distinct contributions by frontal and parietal cortices support working memory.

ABSTRACT: Although subregions of frontal and parietal cortex both contribute and coordinate to support working memory (WM) functions, their distinct contributions remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that perturbations to topographically organized human frontal and parietal cortex during WM maintenance cause distinct but systematic distortions in WM. The nature of these distortions supports theories positing that parietal cortex mainly codes for retrospective sensory information, while frontal cortex codes for prospective action.

SUBMITTER: Mackey WE

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5522403 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Publications

Distinct contributions by frontal and parietal cortices support working memory.

Mackey Wayne E WE Curtis Clayton E CE

Scientific reports 20170721 1

Although subregions of frontal and parietal cortex both contribute and coordinate to support working memory (WM) functions, their distinct contributions remain elusive. Here, we demonstrate that perturbations to topographically organized human frontal and parietal cortex during WM maintenance cause distinct but systematic distortions in WM. The nature of these distortions supports theories positing that parietal cortex mainly codes for retrospective sensory information, while frontal cortex code ...[more]

PMID: 28733684

Similar Datasets

Evaluating frontal and parietal contributions to spatial working memory with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation.

Project description:Functional neuroimaging studies have produced contradictory data about the extent to which specific regions of the frontal and the posterior parietal cortices contribute to the retention of information in spatial working memory. We used high frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to assess the necessity for the short-term retention of spatial information of brain areas identified by previous functional imaging studies: dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), frontal eye fields (FEF), superior parietal lobule (SPL) and intraparietal sulcus (IPS). 10 Hz rTMS spanned the 3-s delay period of a spatial delayed-recognition task. The postcentral gyrus (PCG) was included to control for any regionally non-specific effects of rTMS. The only regionally-specific effect was a significant decrease in reaction time when rTMS was applied to SPL. Additionally, rTMS lowered accuracy to a greater extent when applied to left than to right hemisphere, and was more disruptive when applied contralaterally vs. ipsilaterally to the visual field in which the memory probe was presented. Although seemingly paradoxical, the finding of rTMS-induced improvement in task performance has a precedent, and is consistent with the idea that regions associated with spatial sensory-motor processing make necessary contributions to the short-term retention of this information. Possible factors underlying rTMS-induced behavioral facilitation are considered.

| S-EPMC2612637 | biostudies-literature

Numerical working memory alters alpha-beta oscillations and connectivity in the parietal cortices.

Project description:Although the neural bases of numerical processing and memory have been extensively studied, much remains to be elucidated concerning the spectral and temporal dynamics surrounding these important cognitive processes. To further this understanding, we employed a novel numerical working memory paradigm in 28 young, healthy adults who underwent magnetoencephalography (MEG). The resulting data were examined in the time-frequency domain prior to image reconstruction using a beamformer. Whole-brain, spectrally-constrained coherence was also employed to determine network connectivity. In response to the numerical task, participants exhibited robust alpha/beta oscillations in the bilateral parietal cortices. Whole-brain statistical comparisons examining the effect of numerical manipulation during memory-item maintenance revealed a difference centered in the right superior parietal cortex, such that oscillatory responses during numerical manipulation were significantly stronger than when no manipulation was necessary. Additionally, there was significantly reduced cortico-cortical coherence between the right and left superior parietal regions during the manipulation compared to the maintenance trials, indicating that these regions were functioning more independently when the numerical information had to be actively processed. In sum, these results support previous studies that have implicated the importance of parietal regions in numerical processing, but also provide new knowledge on the spectral, temporal, and network dynamics that serve this critical cognitive function during active working memory maintenance.

| S-EPMC7416044 | biostudies-literature

Dissociable frontal-striatal and frontal-parietal networks involved in updating hierarchical contexts in working memory.

Project description:Recent theories propose that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is organized in a hierarchical fashion with more abstract, higher level information represented in anterior regions and more concrete, lower level information represented in posterior regions. This hierarchical organization affords flexible adjustments of action plans based on the context. Computational models suggest that such hierarchical organization in the PFC is achieved through interactions with the basal ganglia (BG) wherein the BG gate relevant contexts into the PFC. Here, we tested this proposal using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Participants were scanned while updating working memory (WM) with 2 levels of hierarchical contexts. Consistent with PFC abstraction proposals, higher level context updates involved anterior portions of the PFC (BA 46), whereas lower level context updates involved posterior portions of the PFC (BA 6). Computational models were only partially supported as the BG were sensitive to higher, but not lower level context updates. The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) showed the opposite pattern. Analyses examining changes in functional connectivity confirmed dissociable roles of the anterior PFC-BG during higher level context updates and posterior PFC-PPC during lower level context updates. These results suggest that hierarchical contexts are organized by distinct frontal-striatal and frontal-parietal networks.

| S-EPMC3841420 | biostudies-literature

Parietal and Frontal Cortex Encode Stimulus-Specific Mnemonic Representations during Visual Working Memory.

Project description:Working memory (WM) enables the storage and manipulation of information in an active state. WM storage has long been associated with sustained increases in activation across a network of frontal and parietal cortical regions. However, recent evidence suggests that these regions primarily encode information related to general task goals rather than feature-selective representations of specific memoranda. These goal-related representations are thought to provide top-down feedback that coordinates the representation of fine-grained details in early sensory areas. Here, we test this model using fMRI-based reconstructions of remembered visual details from region-level activation patterns. We could reconstruct high-fidelity representations of a remembered orientation based on activation patterns in occipital visual cortex and in several sub-regions of frontal and parietal cortex, independent of sustained increases in mean activation. These results challenge models of WM that postulate disjoint frontoparietal "top-down control" and posterior sensory "feature storage" networks.

| S-EPMC4545683 | biostudies-literature

Attention modulates spatial priority maps in the human occipital, parietal and frontal cortices.

Project description:Computational theories propose that attention modulates the topographical landscape of spatial 'priority' maps in regions of the visual cortex so that the location of an important object is associated with higher activation levels. Although studies of single-unit recordings have demonstrated attention-related increases in the gain of neural responses and changes in the size of spatial receptive fields, the net effect of these modulations on the topography of region-level priority maps has not been investigated. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging and a multivariate encoding model to reconstruct spatial representations of attended and ignored stimuli using activation patterns across entire visual areas. These reconstructed spatial representations reveal the influence of attention on the amplitude and size of stimulus representations within putative priority maps across the visual hierarchy. Our results suggest that attention increases the amplitude of stimulus representations in these spatial maps, particularly in higher visual areas, but does not substantively change their size.

| S-EPMC3977704 | biostudies-literature

Delay-period activity in frontal, parietal, and occipital cortex tracks noise and biases in visual working memory.

Project description:Working memory is imprecise, and these imprecisions can be explained by the combined influences of random diffusive error and systematic drift toward a set of stable states ("attractors"). However, the neural correlates of diffusion and drift remain unknown. Here, we investigated how delay-period activity in frontal and parietal cortex, which is known to correlate with the decline in behavioral memory precision observed with increasing memory load, might relate to diffusion and drift. We analyzed data from an existing experiment in which subjects performed delayed recall for line orientation, at different loads, during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanning. To quantify the influence of drift and diffusion, we modeled subjects' behavior using a discrete attractor model and calculated within-subject correlation between frontal and parietal delay-period activity and whole-trial estimates of drift and diffusion. We found that although increases in frontal and parietal activity were associated with increases in both diffusion and drift, diffusion explained the most variance in frontal and parietal delay-period activity. In comparison, a subsequent whole-brain regression analysis showed that drift, rather than diffusion, explained the most variance in delay-period activity in lateral occipital cortex. These results are consistent with a model of the differential recruitment of general frontoparietal mechanisms in response to diffusive noise and of stimulus-specific biases in occipital cortex.

| S-EPMC7500688 | biostudies-literature

Distinct relationships of parietal and prefrontal cortices to evidence accumulation.

Project description:Gradual accumulation of evidence is thought to be fundamental for decision-making, and its neural correlates have been found in several brain regions. Here we develop a generalizable method to measure tuning curves that specify the relationship between neural responses and mentally accumulated evidence, and apply it to distinguish the encoding of decision variables in posterior parietal cortex and prefrontal cortex (frontal orienting fields, FOF). We recorded the firing rates of neurons in posterior parietal cortex and FOF from rats performing a perceptual decision-making task. Classical analyses uncovered correlates of accumulating evidence, similar to previous observations in primates and also similar across the two regions. However, tuning curve assays revealed that while the posterior parietal cortex encodes a graded value of the accumulating evidence, the FOF has a more categorical encoding that indicates, throughout the trial, the decision provisionally favoured by the evidence accumulated so far. Contrary to current views, this suggests that premotor activity in the frontal cortex does not have a role in the accumulation process, but instead has a more categorical function, such as transforming accumulated evidence into a discrete choice. To probe causally the role of FOF activity, we optogenetically silenced it during different time points of the trial. Consistent with a role in committing to a categorical choice at the end of the evidence accumulation process, but not consistent with a role during the accumulation itself, a behavioural effect was observed only when FOF silencing occurred at the end of the perceptual stimulus. Our results place important constraints on the circuit logic of brain regions involved in decision-making.

| S-EPMC4835184 | biostudies-literature

Persistently active neurons in human medial frontal and medial temporal lobe support working memory.

Project description:Persistent neural activity is a putative mechanism for the maintenance of working memories. Persistent activity relies on the activity of a distributed network of areas, but the differential contribution of each area remains unclear. We recorded single neurons in the human medial frontal cortex and medial temporal lobe while subjects held up to three items in memory. We found persistently active neurons in both areas. Persistent activity of hippocampal and amygdala neurons was stimulus-specific, formed stable attractors and was predictive of memory content. Medial frontal cortex persistent activity, on the other hand, was modulated by memory load and task set but was not stimulus-specific. Trial-by-trial variability in persistent activity in both areas was related to memory strength, because it predicted the speed and accuracy by which stimuli were remembered. This work reveals, in humans, direct evidence for a distributed network of persistently active neurons supporting working memory maintenance.

| S-EPMC5374017 | biostudies-literature

Distinct neural circuits support transient and sustained processes in prospective memory and working memory.

Project description:Current theories are divided as to whether prospective memory (PM) involves primarily sustained processes such as strategic monitoring, or transient processes such as the retrieval of intentions from memory when a relevant cue is encountered. The current study examined the neural correlates of PM using a functional magnetic resonance imaging design that allows for the decomposition of brain activity into sustained and transient components. Performance of the PM task was primarily associated with sustained responses in a network including anterior prefrontal cortex (lateral Brodmann area 10), and these responses were dissociable from sustained responses associated with active maintenance in working memory. Additionally, the sustained responses in anterior prefrontal cortex correlated with faster response times for prospective responses. Prospective cues also elicited selective transient activity in a region of interest along the right middle temporal gyrus. The results support the conclusion that both sustained and transient processes contribute to efficient PM and provide novel constraints on the functional role of anterior PFC in higher-order cognition.

| S-EPMC2665160 | biostudies-other

Coding of latent variables in sensory, parietal, and frontal cortices during closed-loop virtual navigation.

Project description:We do not understand how neural nodes operate and coordinate within the recurrent action-perception loops that characterize naturalistic self-environment interactions. Here, we record single-unit spiking activity and local field potentials (LFPs) simultaneously from the dorsomedial superior temporal area (MSTd), parietal area 7a, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) as monkeys navigate in virtual reality to 'catch fireflies'. This task requires animals to actively sample from a closed-loop virtual environment while concurrently computing continuous latent variables: (i) the distance and angle travelled (i.e., path integration) and (ii) the distance and angle to a memorized firefly location (i.e., a hidden spatial goal). We observed a patterned mixed selectivity, with the prefrontal cortex most prominently coding for latent variables, parietal cortex coding for sensorimotor variables, and MSTd most often coding for eye movements. However, even the traditionally considered sensory area (i.e., MSTd) tracked latent variables, demonstrating path integration and vector coding of hidden spatial goals. Further, global encoding profiles and unit-to-unit coupling (i.e., noise correlations) suggested a functional subnetwork composed by MSTd and dlPFC, and not between these and 7a, as anatomy would suggest. We show that the greater the unit-to-unit coupling between MSTd and dlPFC, the more the animals' gaze position was indicative of the ongoing location of the hidden spatial goal. We suggest this MSTd-dlPFC subnetwork reflects the monkeys' natural and adaptive task strategy wherein they continuously gaze toward the location of the (invisible) target. Together, these results highlight the distributed nature of neural coding during closed action-perception loops and suggest that fine-grain functional subnetworks may be dynamically established to subserve (embodied) task strategies.

| S-EPMC9668339 | biostudies-literature

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data