Neuronal Population Coding of Parametric Working Memory

Comparing two sequentially presented stimuli is a widely used experimental paradigm for studying working memory. The delay activity of many single neurons in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) of monkeys was found to be stimulus-specific, however, population dynamics of stimulus representation has not been elucidated. We analyzed the population state of a large number of PFC neurons during a somatosensory discrimination task. Using the tuning curves of the neurons, we derived a compact characterization of the population state. Stimulus representation by the population was found to degrade after stimulus termination, and emerge in a different form toward the end of the delay. Specifically, the tuning properties of neurons were found to change during the task. We suggest a mechanism whereby information about the stimulus is contained in activity-dependent synaptic facilitation of recurrent connections.