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Geometry of sequence working memory in macaque prefrontal cortex.

Yang Xie1, Peiyao Hu1, Junru Li1

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The brain uses a geometric code in the prefrontal cortex to store sequences in working memory. This code organizes spatial information by rank, explaining how we remember ordered information.

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Science
  • Computational Neuroscience

Background:

  • Understanding how the brain encodes sequential information in working memory is a fundamental challenge in neuroscience.
  • Previous research has not fully elucidated the neural mechanisms governing the storage of ordered information during delay periods.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the neural code for sequence working memory.
  • To determine how the brain represents the order and spatial content of memorized sequences.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized two-photon calcium imaging to record activity from thousands of prefrontal cortex neurons in macaque monkeys.
  • Monkeys performed a task requiring them to memorize and reproduce sequences of locations after a delay period.

Main Results:

  • Discovered a geometric organization within the high-dimensional neural state space.
  • Identified low-dimensional subspaces representing spatial locations based on their ordinal rank within the sequence.
  • Demonstrated that this representational geometry generalizes to novel sequences and predicts behavioral performance.
  • Found that ordinal and spatial information integration occurs at the population level, not within individual neurons.

Conclusions:

  • A simple representational geometry underlies sequence working memory.
  • The brain employs a distributed, population-level code to represent ordered information.
  • This geometric encoding provides a framework for understanding sequence working memory and its neural basis.