Persistent activity and memory in the entorhinal cortex.
The entorhinal cortex (EC) is an essential component of the medial temporal lobe long-term-memory system. Recently, Egorov et al. demonstrated that neurons in layer 5 of the EC show graded persistent activity: each neuron could maintain a constant rate firing over several minutes, even in the absence of input from other neurons. These findings suggest that layer-5 EC neurons could play a central role in the formation of associations among stimuli that occur at different times.
Frank
Loren M
LM
Neuroscience Statistics Research Laboratory, Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. loren@phys.ucsf.edu
Brown
Emery N
EN
D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D018728:Entorhinal Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats