Increases of theta-low gamma coupling in rat medial prefrontal cortex during working memory task.
Cross-frequency coupling (CFC) between the theta (4-12Hz) phase and the amplitude of gamma (30-100Hz) oscillations occurs frequently in brain. However, the function of theta-gamma coupling in rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in working memory remains unclear. To address this issue, we studied 16-channel CFC in local field potentials (LFPs) recorded from the mPFC of over-trained rats as they performed a Y-maze working memory task. During this course, the amplitude of the low gamma subband (30-60Hz) was more strongly modulated by theta phase during the correct trials than in the error ones. Meanwhile, more channels showed higher theta-low gamma coupling levels during the correct performance. By contrast, the strength of theta-high gamma coupling did not significantly increase during the working memory task in both correct and error trials, indicating an insignificant correlation with the performance validity. These findings suggest a role of mPFC theta-low gamma coupling in working memory.
Laboratory of Neural Engineering, School of Biomedical Engineering/Research Center of Basic Medicine, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin 300070, China.
Shuangyan
S
Li
Wenwen
W
Bai
Tiaotiao
T
Liu
Hu
H
Yi
Xin
X
Tian
D000818:Animals; D058256:Brain Waves / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography; D008297:Male; D018782:Maze Learning; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013223:Statistics as Topic