Architecture and dynamics of the primate prefrontal cortical circuit for spatial working memory

Abstract

In the experimental protocol of working memory tasks using a monkey as a subject, tuned activity of the prefrontal cortical neurons that is sustained during the delay period is a neuronal substrate of the working memory. This study addresses the question as to how this tuned activity is formed and maintained in the prefrontal cortex by means of computer simulations of the dynamics of a model prefrontal cortical circuit. The model assumes that pyramidal cells receive two types of intracortical inhibition, “parallel” and “anti-parallel”, in accordance with recent experimental findings. The parallel and anti-parallel refer to the relationship between the preferred directions of presynaptic interneurons and postsynaptic pyramidal cells. The following three factors are suggested to be crucial for the formation and maintenance of spatial working memory: cortical amplification of the activity due to excitatory closed-loop circuitry, suppression of excessive excitation by the parallel inhibition, and sharpening of the activity profile by the anti-parallel inhibition.