Temporal Association Coding in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex: Difference in the Role among Distinct Neuron Types
Year: 2019
Type: dissertation
Abstract: The ability to associate two stimuli that are separated by a temporal gap requires at least two types of information: what has been presented (trace holding) and what will follow (temporal expectation). It has been shown that neurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) can be selective for trace holding, temporal expectation or both. It remains unknown, however, what the distinct role of different neuron types is in representing trace holding and temporal expectation. Thus, the present study investigates the role of three distinct neuron types found in mPFC by applying a series of analyses. The narrow-waveform and fast-spiking neurons were more selective for trace holding than temporal expectation. The wide-waveform regular-firing neurons were equally selective for both types of information and the wide-waveform bursting neurons were less selective than the other neuron types. Therefore, I found that three neuron types have distinct contributions to the encoding of temporal association.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Bohan Xing
Language: English
Topic: Memory and Neural Mechanisms
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3156453795