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Working memory expands shared task representations in cortex
Efthymia Mika Diamanti1, Lucas Pinto2,3, Manuel Schottdorf1,4
1Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Biorxiv : the Preprint Server for Biology
|November 19, 2025
Summary
Cognitive load flexibly reconfigures neural activity organization. Working memory tasks decrease neural correlations, revealing a shared low-dimensional structure that expands with cognitive demand.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Cognitive Science
- Computational Neuroscience
Background:
- Cognition relies on flexible neural activity organization.
- Understanding how neural representations change with cognitive load is crucial but unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how working memory representations differ from non-working memory tasks.
- To explore the neural basis of cognitive flexibility across varying cognitive loads.
Main Methods:
- Used a virtual reality task-switching paradigm in mice.
- Simultaneously imaged neural activity in visual (AM) and association areas (M2, retrosplenial cortex).
- Analyzed single-neuron activity, pairwise correlations, and dimensionality reduction.
Main Results:
- Single-neuron activity appeared similar, but pairwise correlations decreased during working memory tasks, especially in association areas.
- A shared low-dimensional neural structure was identified across tasks, with firing field organization differing based on cognitive load.
- Disjoint firing fields in working memory tasks, particularly in association areas, predicted behavioral reliance on working memory.
Conclusions:
- Cognitive demands are supported by a single, adaptable low-dimensional neural structure.
- This structure expands or contracts based on cognitive load, providing a framework for cortical reconfigurations.
- Neural representations dynamically reconfigure to support cognitive processes across different tasks.
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