title: Dissociated sequential activity and stimulus encoding in the dorsomedial striatum during spatial working memory.
abstract: Several lines of evidence suggest that the striatum has an important role in spatial working memory. The neural dynamics in the striatum have been described in tasks with short delay periods (1-4 s), but remain largely uncharacterized for tasks with longer delay periods. We collected and analyzed single unit recordings from the dorsomedial striatum of rats performing a spatial working memory task with delays up to 10 s. We found that neurons were activated sequentially, with the sequences spanning the entire delay period. Surprisingly, this sequential activity was dissociated from stimulus encoding activity, which was present in the same neurons, but preferentially appeared towards the onset of the delay period. These observations contrast with descriptions of sequential dynamics during similar tasks in other brains areas, and clarify the contribution of the striatum to spatial working memory.
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
authors.forename: Hessameddin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Akhlaghpour
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.|Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
authors.forename: Joost
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wiskerke
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.|Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
authors.forename: Jung Yoon
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
authors.forename: Joshua P
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6051-8635
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Taliaferro
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Au
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.|Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States.
authors.forename: Ilana B
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0548-2160
authors.initials: IB
authors.lastname: Witten
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000502:physiology*; D008570:Memory, Short-Term; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D051381:Rats; D065852:Spatial Memory
keywords: electrophysiology; neuroscience; rat; striatum; working memory