Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Neuroscience and Neurobiology

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Theses/Dissertations

2015

Working memory

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Muscarinic Attenuation Of Mnemonic Rule Representation In Macaque Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex During A Pro- And Anti-Saccade Task, Alex J. Major Aug 2015

Muscarinic Attenuation Of Mnemonic Rule Representation In Macaque Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex During A Pro- And Anti-Saccade Task, Alex J. Major

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Maintenance of context is necessary for execution of appropriate responses to diverse environmental stimuli. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) plays a pivotal role in executive function, including working memory and representation of abstract rules, and is modulated by the ascending cholinergic system through nicotinic and muscarinic receptors. Muscarinic receptors’ effect on local primate DLPFC neural activity in vivo during cognitive tasks remains poorly understood. Here we examined the effects of muscarinic receptor blockade on rule-related activity in the macaque prefrontal cortex by combining iontophoretic application of the general muscarinic receptor antagonist scopolamine with single-unit recordings while monkeys performed a rule-guided …


Contribution Of The Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex To Attentional And Mnemonic Processes In Visual Search, Brandon Belbeck Jul 2015

Contribution Of The Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex To Attentional And Mnemonic Processes In Visual Search, Brandon Belbeck

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A key characteristic of selective visual attention is that it may be deployed on the basis of our knowledge or goals of the task at hand. Here, we used cryogenic deactivation to investigate the contribution of the dorsolateral PFC to cognitive flexibility and working memory, as well as their relation to the deployment of attention. Macaque monkeys performed visual search tasks requiring them to foveate a target in an array of stimuli. These included a feature search, a constant-target conjunction search, a variable-target search and variable-target with delay search task, with each being more cognitively demanding than the last. Bilateral …