title: Prefrontal Cortex Networks Shift from External to Internal Modes during Learning.
abstract: As we learn about items in our environment, their neural representations become increasingly enriched with our acquired knowledge. But there is little understanding of how network dynamics and neural processing related to external information changes as it becomes laden with "internal" memories. We sampled spiking and local field potential activity simultaneously from multiple sites in the lateral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the hippocampus (HPC)-regions critical for sensory associations-of monkeys performing an object paired-associate learning task. We found that in the PFC, evoked potentials to, and neural information about, external sensory stimulation decreased while induced beta-band (∼11-27 Hz) oscillatory power and synchrony associated with "top-down" or internal processing increased. By contrast, the HPC showed little evidence of learning-related changes in either spiking activity or network dynamics. The results suggest that during associative learning, PFC networks shift their resources from external to internal processing.
  
  
  
  As we learn about items in our environment, their representations in our brain become increasingly enriched with our acquired "top-down" knowledge. We found that in the prefrontal cortex, but not the hippocampus, processing of external sensory inputs decreased while internal network dynamics related to top-down processing increased. The results suggest that during learning, prefrontal cortex networks shift their resources from external (sensory) to internal (memory) processing.
authors.affiliation: The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139.
authors.forename: Scott L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Brincat
authors.affiliation: The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 ekmiller@mit.edu.
authors.forename: Earl K
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0582-6958
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Miller
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D001245:Association Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000166:cytology; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance
keywords: bottom-up; hippocampus; learning; memory; prefrontal cortex; top-down