Neurons in the prefrontal and posterior parietal cortices show task-dependent synchronized activity during working memory tasks, but the role of such activity remains unclear. Salazar et al. recorded activity from neurons in both brain regions in monkeys while the animals performed a visual working memory task. In this task, monkeys were briefly shown a visual stimulus. Then, after a delay, they were shown two further stimuli and had to pick the one that matched the original stimulus. During the delay period, content-specific synchronized activity occurred across the fronto-parietal network, suggesting that synchronous activity represents the short-term memory.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Salazar, R. F. et al. Content-specific fronto-parietal synchronization during visual working memory. Science 1 Nov 2012 (doi:10.1126/science.1224000)
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Yates, D. Getting in sync with working memory. Nat Rev Neurosci 13, 817 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3399
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3399