3 ms·
My intuitive understanding of these findings is that short term memory works by maintaining a consistent firing pattern in a particular region of the prefrontal
by goldenshale 6y ago
My intuitive understanding of these findings is that short term memory works by maintaining a consistent firing pattern in a particular region of the prefrontal cortex. By default a given firing pattern might activate other patterns because neurons tend to be a part of multiple potential pattern groups, and so left unchecked it could result in an unstable, random walk type of sequence. To stay in the attractor of one memory though, inhibitory neurons are used to turn off everything that isn't a part of the memory, thereby allowing it to remain in a more steady state.
- subroutine 6y agoTo further clarify, I believe the authors are advocating a WM model where an excitatory subnet (activated by a Positive cue) sustains its firing (in the absence of that cue; the Delay period) by activating inhibitors of its own inhibitors. (these inhibitory subnets, like goldenshale mentions, also seem to inhibit excitatory subnets, diffusely). model diagram: https://i.ibb.co/nrh1pVJ/figs.png https://i.ibb.co/nrh1pVJ/figs.png