Abstract
The severe limitation of the capacity of working memory, the ability to store temporarily and manipulate information1, necessitates mechanisms that restrict access to it. Here we report tests to discover whether the activity of neurons in the prefrontal (PF)cortex, the putative neural correlate of working memory2,3,4,5,6,7,8, might reflect these mechanisms and preferentially represent behaviourally relevant information. Monkeys performed a ‘delayed-matching-to-sample’ task with an array of three objects. Only one of the objects in the array was relevant for task performance and the monkeys needed to find that object (the target) and remember its location. For many PF neurons, activity to physically identical arrays varied with the target location; the location of the non-target objects had little or no influence on activity. Information about the target location was present in activity as early as 140 ms after array onset. Also, information about which object was the target was reflected in the sustained activity of many PF neurons. These results suggest that the prefrontal cortex is involved in selecting and maintaining behaviourally relevant information.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baddeley, A. Working Memory (Clarendon, Oxford, (1986).
Fuster, J. M. & Alexander, G. E. Neuron activity related to short-term memory. Science 173, 652–654 (1971).
Kubota, K. & Niki, H. Prefrontal cortical unit activity and delayed alternation performance in monkeys. J. Neurophysiol. 34, 337–347 (1971).
Funahashi, S., Bruce, C. J. & Goldman-Rakic, P. S. Mnemonic coding of visual space in the monkey's dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 61, 331–349 (1989).
di Pellegrino, G. & Wise, S. P. Aneurophysiological comparison of three distinct regions of the primate frontal lobe. Brain 114, 951–978 (1991).
Miller, E. K., Erickson, C. A. & Desimone, R. Neural mechanisms of visual working memory in prefrontal cortex of the macaque. J. Neurosci. 16, 5154–5167 (1996).
Rao, S. C., Rainer, G. & Miller, E. K. Integration of what and where in the primate prefrontal cortex. Science 276, 821–824 (1997)
Hasegawa, R., Sawaguchi, T. & Kubota, K. Monkey prefrontal neuronal activity coding the forthcoming saccade in an oculomotor delayed matching to sample task. J. Neurophysiol. 79, 322–333 (1998).
Hoffman, J. E. & Subramaniam, B. Saccadic eye movement and visual selective attention. Percept. Psychophys. 57, 787–795 (1995).
Shepard, M., Findlay, J. M. & Hockey, R. J. The relationship between eye movements and spatial attention. Q. J. Exp. Psychol. 38A, 475–491 (1997).
Miller, G. A. The magic number seven plus or minus two: some limits on capacity for processing information. Psychol. Rev. 63, 81–97 (1956).
Kahneman, D. Attention and Effort (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, (1973).
Luck, S. J. & Vogel, E. K. The capacity of visual working memory for features and conjunctions. Nature 390, 279–281 (1997).
Duncan, J. & Humphreys, G. W. Visual search and similarity. Psychol. Rev. 96, 433–458 (1989).
Desimone, R. & Duncan, J. Neural mechanisms of selective visual attention. Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 18, 193–222 (1995).
Gottlieb, J. P., Kusonoki, M. & Goldberg, M. E. The representation of visual salience in monkey parietal cortex. Nature 391, 481–484 (1998).
Chelazzi, L., Miller, E. K., Duncan, J. & Desimone, R. Aneural basis for visual search in inferior temporal (IT) cortex. Nature 363, 345–347 (1993).
Luck, S. J., Chelazzi, L., Hillyard, S. A. & Desimone, R. Neural mechanisms of spatial selective attention in areas V1, V2, and V4 of macaque visual cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 77, 24–42 (1997).
Moody, S. L., Wise, S. P., Di Pellegrino, G. & Zipser, D. A. Amodel that accounts for activity in primate frontal cortex during a delayed matching-to-sample task. J. Neurosci. 18, 399–410 (1998).
Acknowledgements
We thank S. Chenchal Rao for his participation in an early phase of this experiment and M. Histed for expert animal training and computer support. This work was supported by an NINDS grant and the Pew Charitable Trusts. We thank P. Dayan, R. Desimone, S. Macknik, J. Mazer, J. Schall, R. Wehby, M. Wicherski and M.Wilson for their valuable comments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rainer, G., Asaad, W. & Miller, E. Selective representation of relevant information by neurons in the primate prefrontal cortex. Nature 393, 577–579 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/31235
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/31235
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.