Abstract
Execution of cognitive functions is orchestrated by a brain-wide network comprising multiple regions. However, it remains elusive whether the cortical laminar pattern of inter-areal interactions exhibits dynamic routings, depending on cognitive operations. We address this issue by simultaneously recording neuronal activities from area 36 and area TE of the temporal cortex while monkeys performed a visual cued-recall task. We identify dynamic laminar routing of the inter-areal interaction: during visual processing of a presented cue, spiking activities of area 36 neurons are preferentially coherent with local field potentials at the supragranular layer of area TE, while the signal from the same neurons switches to target the infragranular layer of area TE during memory retrieval. This layer-dependent signal represents the to-be-recalled object, and has an impact on the local processing at the supragranular layer in both cognitive operations. Thus, cortical layers form a key structural basis for dynamic switching of cognitive operations.
Highlights
Execution of cognitive functions is orchestrated by a brain-wide network comprising multiple regions
In the static flow model, the activity of an area 36 (A36) neuron is always coordinated with the activity in a specific layer of TE during both cue perception and memory retrieval, and different populations of A36 neurons whose activities are coordinated with the activities in different layers of TE are separately engaged in the cue perception and the memory retrieval
To determine whether inter-areal coherence between the A36 spikes and the TE local field potential (LFP) has an impact on local neuronal processing in TE during cue perception and memory retrieval (Fig. 4a), we examined the coupling between the inter-areal neuronal signal and the timevarying γ activity in TE
Summary
Execution of cognitive functions is orchestrated by a brain-wide network comprising multiple regions. Phase-locking of spiking activity in the rat medial prefrontal cortex to the gamma activity of the local field potential (LFP) in the hippocampus has been shown to be stronger during the encoding phase than during the retrieval phase of spatial working memory[19] Such cognitive-state-dependent changes in functional connectivity between brain regions have been demonstrated by imaging studies in humans[22,23,24] and non-human primates[25,26,27]. We tested these hypotheses by simultaneously recording activities of single neurons in A36 and LFPs in each layer of TE of the temporal cortex while monkeys were performing a visual cued-recall task (Fig. 1c), and found that the cortical laminar pattern of inter-areal interactions between A36 and TE exhibits dynamic routings, depending on cognitive operations
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