title: Emergence of task-dependent representations in working memory circuits.
abstract: A wealth of experimental evidence suggests that working memory circuits preferentially represent information that is behaviorally relevant. Still, we are missing a mechanistic account of how these representations come about. Here we provide a simple explanation for a range of experimental findings, in light of prefrontal circuits adapting to task constraints by reward-dependent learning. In particular, we model a neural network shaped by reward-modulated spike-timing dependent plasticity (r-STDP) and homeostatic plasticity (intrinsic excitability and synaptic scaling). We show that the experimentally-observed neural representations naturally emerge in an initially unstructured circuit as it learns to solve several working memory tasks. These results point to a critical, and previously unappreciated, role for reward-dependent learning in shaping prefrontal cortex activity.
authors.affiliation: Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Savin
authors.affiliation: Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies Frankfurt am Main, Germany ; Physics Department, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Jochen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Triesch
keywords: STDP; delayed categorization; intrinsic plasticity; prefrontal cortex; reward-dependent learning; synaptic scaling; working memory