Dissociated sequential activity and stimulus encoding in the dorsomedial striatum during spatial working memory
Hessameddin Akhlaghpour,
Joost Wiskerke,
Jung Yoon Choi,
Joshua P Taliaferro,
Jennifer Au,
Ilana B Witten
Affiliations
Hessameddin Akhlaghpour
Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
Joost Wiskerke
Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
Jung Yoon Choi
Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, United States; Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, United States
Several lines of evidence suggest that the striatum has an important role in spatial working memory. The neural dynamics in the striatum have been described in tasks with short delay periods (1–4 s), but remain largely uncharacterized for tasks with longer delay periods. We collected and analyzed single unit recordings from the dorsomedial striatum of rats performing a spatial working memory task with delays up to 10 s. We found that neurons were activated sequentially, with the sequences spanning the entire delay period. Surprisingly, this sequential activity was dissociated from stimulus encoding activity, which was present in the same neurons, but preferentially appeared towards the onset of the delay period. These observations contrast with descriptions of sequential dynamics during similar tasks in other brains areas, and clarify the contribution of the striatum to spatial working memory.
