Variability of Neural Responses in the Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

The neurophysiological signature of visuospatial working memory is a conspicuous persistent activity throughout a delay period in which the stimulus is absent. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has long been implicated as the seat of visuospatial working memory, and undergoes dramatic increases in volume and functional connectivity during and around the time of puberty. However, much of the neurophysiological changes between the two developmental periods remains obscured, including that of how response variability changes. This is important, since recent studies have shown that mean firing rate alone may not be sufficient to fully explain neural responses as a function of task demands and stimulus intensity. Here, we address two primary questions: First, does response variability change significantly as a function of pubertal development? And second, does task difficulty modulate response variability in any meaningful way? We also looked at possible effects of the hemifield of the response on variability. What we found was a modest effect of development on Fano factor during the cue epoch and a generally higher Fano factor for ipsilateral responses in adult monkeys. Task difficulty had no definitive effects on response variability as measured by the Fano factor here.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• King, Samson Garret

• development

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/57095

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/57095