Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Working Memory

Working Memory

Working memory refers to a combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow an individual to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks. It is an essential cognitive function that enables the execution of complex tasks such as problem-solving, comprehension, and reasoning. Unlike short-term memory, which simply involves the storage of information for a brief period, working memory involves the active manipulation and processing of this...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Investigating the mechanisms underlying saccade generation in the frontal eye fields using multi-site microstimulation.

Journal of neurophysiology·2026

Same author

Brain-wide arousal signals are segregated from movement planning in the superior colliculus of the macaque.

eLife·2026

Same author

Input-dependent directionality of interactions between cortical areas.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

Interactions across hemispheres in prefrontal cortex reflect global cognitive processing.

Nature communications·2026

Same author

Linking reaction time variability to physiological markers of arousal across timescales.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same author

From Breath to Behavior: Respiratory Features Predict Visual Detection Performance.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2026

Same journal

Erratum: Yao et al., "Estrogen Regulates Bcl-w and Bim Expression: Role in Protection against β-Amyloid Peptide-Induced Neuronal Death".

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026

Same journal

Erratum: L'Episcopo et al., "Plasticity of Subventricular Zone Neuroprogenitors in MPTP (1-Methyl-4-Phenyl-1,2,3,6-Tetrahydropyridine) Mouse Model of Parkinson's Disease Involves Cross Talk between Inflammatory and Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Pathways: Functional Consequences for Neuroprotection and Repair".

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026

Same journal

Representations of subsecond duration-based timing by complex spike synchrony in cerebellar Purkinje neurons.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026

Same journal

The extended language network: Language-responsive brain areas whose contributions to language remain to be discovered.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026

Same journal

Cortical and thalamic afferent connectomes distinguish ACC subregions of the macaque brain.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026

Same journal

The synaptic vesicle priming protein Munc13 mediates evoked somatodendritic dopamine release.

The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 18, 2026

Online Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Dorsomedial and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Cognition Decision Making, and Cognitive Dissonance

Online Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Dorsomedial and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Cognition Decision Making, and Cognitive Dissonance

Published on: December 5, 2025

Robustness of Working Memory to Prefrontal Cortex Microstimulation.

Joana Soldado-Magraner^1,2,3, Yuki Minai^2,3,4, Byron M Yu^5,2,3,6

¹Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213 jsoldadomagraner@cmu.edu.

The Journal of Neuroscience : the Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience

|May 30, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Neural activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) supports working memory. Microstimulation perturbed dlPFC signals but did not affect task performance, showing working memory robustness.

Keywords:

dimensionality reduction dorsolateral prefrontal cortex neural perturbations population activity

More Related Videos

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS for Memory Enhancement

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS for Memory Enhancement

Published on: September 18, 2021

Measuring and Manipulating Functionally Specific Neural Pathways in the Human Motor System with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Measuring and Manipulating Functionally Specific Neural Pathways in the Human Motor System with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Published on: February 23, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jan 18, 2026

Online Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Dorsomedial and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Cognition Decision Making, and Cognitive Dissonance

Online Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation of Dorsomedial and Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex in Cognition Decision Making, and Cognitive Dissonance

Published on: December 5, 2025

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS for Memory Enhancement

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS for Memory Enhancement

Published on: September 18, 2021

Measuring and Manipulating Functionally Specific Neural Pathways in the Human Motor System with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Measuring and Manipulating Functionally Specific Neural Pathways in the Human Motor System with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Published on: February 23, 2020

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Systems Neuroscience

Background:

Delay period activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) is crucial for maintaining sensory information in working memory.
Signal stability in dlPFC is thought to enable robust memory-guided behavior despite sensory distractions.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the impact of direct activity perturbations on dlPFC neural signals and working memory behavior.
To understand how dlPFC neural population activity dynamics relate to working memory stability.

Main Methods:

Patterned microstimulation was applied to the dlPFC of two rhesus macaques during a memory-guided saccade task.
Multielectrode arrays were used to record neural activity and deliver electrical stimulation.
Neural activity and task performance were measured under various stimulation conditions.

Main Results:

Microstimulation perturbed spatial working memory-related signals in individual dlPFC neurons.
Despite neural signal perturbations, overall task performance remained largely unaffected.
Neural activity changes were observed in dimensions where signals evolved over time, but not in stable dimensions.

Conclusions:

Working memory representations in dlPFC are robust to perturbations.
The stability of neural signals in specific dimensions of dlPFC population activity may underlie this robustness.
This dissociation explains how working memory is maintained despite neural activity fluctuations.