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Cited by 251Neural dynamics and brain functionNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesMemory and Neural Mechanisms

Role of Prefrontal Persistent Activity in Working Memory

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Riley, Mitchell R., Constantinidis, Christos·2016·Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
DOI 10.3389/fnsys.2015.00181PMC PMC4700146
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Abstract

The prefrontal cortex is activated during working memory, as evidenced by fMRI results in human studies and neurophysiological recordings in animal models. Persistent activity during the delay period of working memory tasks, after the offset of stimuli that subjects are required to remember, has traditionally been thought of as the neural correlate of working memory. In the last few years several findings have cast doubt on the role of this activity. By some accounts, activity in other brain areas, such as the primary visual and posterior parietal cortex, is a better predictor of information maintained in visual working memory and working memory performance; dynamic patterns of activity may convey information without requiring persistent activity at all; and prefrontal neurons may be ill-suited to represent non-spatial information about the features and identity of remembered stimuli. Alternative interpretations about the role of the prefrontal cortex have thus been suggested, such as that it provides a top-down control of information represented in other brain areas, rather than maintaining a working memory trace itself. Here we review evidence for and against the role of prefrontal persistent activity, with a focus on visual neurophysiology. We show that persistent activity predicts behavioral parameters precisely in working memory tasks. We illustrate that prefrontal cortex represents features of stimuli other than their spatial location, and that this information is largely absent from early cortical areas during working memory. We examine memory models not dependent on persistent activity, and conclude that each of those models could mediate only a limited range of memory-dependent behaviors. We review activity decoded from brain areas other than the prefrontal cortex during working memory and demonstrate that these areas alone cannot mediate working memory maintenance, particularly in the presence of distractors. We finally discuss the discrepancy between BOLD activation and spiking activity findings, and point out that fMRI methods do not currently have the spatial resolution necessary to decode information within the prefrontal cortex, which is likely organized at the micrometer scale. Therefore, we make the case that prefrontal persistent activity is both necessary and sufficient for the maintenance of information in working memory.

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  • Working memory serves as the basis of other higher order cognitive processes including recognition memory, which is mediated by mPFC function.

    “Among numerous cognitive domains, working memory serves as the basis of other higher order cognitive processes including but not limited to recognition memory (27–29), which is mediated by mPFC function.”

    From Effects of Lisdexamfetamine, a Prodrug of D-Amphetamine, on Locomotion, Spatial Cognitive Processing and Neurochemical Profiles in Rats: A Comparison With Immediate-Release Amphetamine (2022) · cites this paper as [27]

    The Introduction says working memory is a core component of other cognitive functions, including language, problem solving, reasoning, and abstract thought. The paper discusses prefrontal cortex involvement in working memory, but the passages do not identify recognition memory as one of those functions or establish that recognition memory is mediated by mPFC. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Riley, M. R., & Constantinidis, C.
Affiliations
Wake Forest University Health Sciences (US)
Corresponding author
Constantinidis, Christos
ORCID
Venue
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience
Publisher
Frontiers Media SA
Published
2016-01-05
Volume
9
Pages
181-181
ISSN
1662-5137 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.3389/fnsys.2015.00181
PMC
PMC4700146
OpenAlex
W2270694305
Cited by
251
References
12
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 19 · 2021: 22 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 38 · 2018: 25 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 8 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1
FWCI
3.38
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
Funders
National Institutes of Health (R01 EY017077, R01 EY016773, F31 MH104012)
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
working memory, prefrontal cortex, delay-period activity, visual working memory, top-down control, memory models, posterior parietal cortex, visual cortex, distractor interference, neural decoding

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