Coordinated Reactivation of Distributed Memory Traces in Primate Neocortex

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 297; no. 5589; pp. 2070 - 2073
• Main Authors: Hoffman, K. L., McNaughton, B. L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 20.09.2002; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Action Potentials; Anatomical correlates of behavior; Animals; Behavioral psychophysiology; Biological and medical sciences; Brain; Brain Mapping; Correlation; Correlations; Cues; Electrodes, Implanted; Eye Movements; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hippocampus; Laboratory primates; Macaca mulatta; Male; Memory; Memory - physiology; Memory trace; Mental Recall - physiology; Motor cortex; Motor Cortex - physiology; Motor Reactions; Neocortex; Neocortex - physiology; Neurology; Neurons; Neurons - physiology; Parietal Lobe - physiology; Prefrontal cortex; Prefrontal Cortex - physiology; Primates; Primates as laboratory animals; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Somatosensory Cortex - physiology; Time Factors; Cerebral cortex; Memory; Central nervous system; Monkey; Electrophysiology; Somatosensory cortex; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Consolidation; Somesthetic pathway; Animal; Primates; Brain (vertebrata)
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1073538

Conversion of new memories into a lasting form may involve the gradual refinement and linking together of neural representations stored widely throughout neocortex. This consolidation process may require coordinated reactivation of distributed components of memory traces while the cortex is "offline," i.e., not engaged in processing external stimuli. Simultaneous neural ensemble recordings from four sites in the macaque neocortex revealed such coordinated reactivation. In motor, somatosensory, and parietal cortex (but not prefrontal cortex), the behaviorally induced correlation structure and temporal patterning of neural ensembles within and between regions were preserved, confirming a major tenet of the trace-reactivation theory of memory consolidation.