Persistent Single-Neuron Activity during Working Memory in the Human Medial Temporal Lobe
Open accessAbstract
Working memory is an essential component of human cognition. Persistent activity related to working memory has been reported in many brain areas, including the inferior temporal and prefrontal cortex [1-8]. The medial temporal lobe (MTL) contains "concept cells" that respond invariantly to specific individuals or places whether presented as images, text, or speech [9, 10]. It is unknown, however, whether the MTL also participates in working memory processes. We thus sought to determine whether human MTL neurons respond to images held in working memory. We recorded from patients with chronically intractable epilepsy as they performed a task that required them to remember three or four sequentially presented pictures across a brief delay. 48% of visually selective neurons continued to carry image-specific information after image offset, but most ceased to encode previously presented images after a subsequent presentation of a different image. However, 8% of visually selective neurons encoded previously presented images during a final maintenance period, despite presentation of further images in the intervening interval. Population activity of stimulus-selective neurons predicted behavioral outcome in terms of correct and incorrect responses. These findings indicate that the MTL is part of a brain-wide network for working memory.
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Concept cells fire when concepts are held in working memory and become active when concepts are retrieved from long-term memory.
“A central finding is that concept cells fire when concepts are held in working memory (Kamiński et al., 2017; Kornblith et al., 2017) and become active when these concepts are retrieved from long-term memory (Gelbard-Sagiv et al., 2008).”
From Conscious Processing and the Global Neuronal Workspace Hypothesis (2020) · cites this paper as Kornblith et al., 2017
Some accessory memory items outside the focus of attention are also coded with persistent activity in medial temporal lobe and prefrontal cortex.
“Some of these accessory memory items are also coded with persistent activity in the medial temporal lobe (Kornblith et al., 2017) and prefrontal cortex (Warden and Miller, 2010).”
From Conscious Processing and the Global Neuronal Workspace Hypothesis (2020) · cites this paper as Kornblith et al., 2017
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Conscious Processing and the Global Neuronal Workspace Hypothesis
Mashour, G. A., Roelfsema, P., Changeux, J.-P., & Dehaene, S. (2020) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2020.01.026 · Cited by 1,164 · see citing works
“A central finding is that concept cells fire when concepts are held in working memory (Kami (cid:2) nski et al., 2017; Kornblith et al., 2017) and become active when these concepts are retrieved from long-term memory (Gelbard-Sagiv et al., 2008).”
BackgroundAmer, T., & Davachi, L. (2022) · doi:10.31234/osf.io/32egy · Cited by 3 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kornblith, S., Quian Quiroga, R., Koch, C., Fried, I., & Mormann, F.
- Affiliations
- California Institute of Technology (US)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Corresponding author
- Mormann, Florian
- Venue
- Current Biology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-04
- Volume
- 27
- Issue
- 7
- Pages
- 1026-1032
- ISSN
- 0960-9822 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5510887
- OpenAlex
- W2595112891
- Cited by
- 133
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 8 · 2017: 4
- FWCI
- 7.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Biology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- CaltechAUTHORS (California Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Volkswagen Foundation (Lichtenberg Program)
- German Research Council (DFG MO930/4-1, SFB 1089)
- US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
- G. Harold and Leila Y. Mathers Foundation
- Gimbel Discovery Fund
- Dana Foundation
- Human Frontiers Science Program
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory Processes and Influences
- Keywords
- working memory, medial temporal lobe, persistent neuronal activity, single-unit recording, drug-resistant epilepsy, population activity, memory maintenance
- MeSH terms
- Epilepsy, Humans, Memory, Short-Term, Neurons, Mental Recall, Temporal Lobe
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