Beyond working memory: the role of persistent activity in decision making
Open accessAbstract
Since its first discovery in the prefrontal cortex, persistent activity during the interval between a transient sensory stimulus and a subsequent behavioral response has been identified in many cortical and subcortical areas. Such persistent activity is thought to reflect the maintenance of working memory representations that bridge past events with future contingent plans. Indeed, the term persistent activity is sometimes used interchangeably with working memory. In this review, we argue that persistent activity observed broadly across many cortical and subcortical areas reflects not only working memory maintenance, but also a variety of other cognitive processes, including perceptual and reward-based decision making.
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Memory traces in neural signals are mixed with other task-dependent factors.
“Memory traces in the neural signals are mixed with other task-dependent factors44,45, and it has been debated whether other processes involved in goal-directed behavior could be mistakenly identified as memory, such as spatial attention46, motor planning47, anticipation of future events48, or timing49.”
From A reservoir of time constants for memory traces in cortical neurons (2011) · cites this paper as [44]
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- Authors
- Curtis, C. E., & Lee, D.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-05
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 216-222
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2883296
- OpenAlex
- W2112480903
- Cited by
- 191
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 17 · 2012: 19
- FWCI
- 1.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (R01-MH05916, R01MH059216)
- National Institute on Drug Abuse (RL1DA024855)
- National Eye Institute (R01EY016407)
- National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (P01NS048328, P05-NS048328)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- persistent activity, working memory, decision-making, perceptual decision making, reward-based decision-making, prefrontal cortex
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Decision Making, Humans, Learning, Memory, Short-Term, Psychomotor Performance
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