The study will investigate how visual information is represented in the prefrontal cortex, the brain area involved with higher cognitive functions, before and after learning to perform a cognitive task. Monkeys will be trained in cognitive tasks that require them to observe and remember visual stimuli. Neurophysiological recordings with an array of microelectrodes at various training stages will allow us to determine the patterns of neuronal activation and the functional interactions between neurons. The experiments will uncover the nature of changes that take place in the prefrontal cortex by learning to perform a cognitive task.

Public Health Relevance

The experiments will test what changes occur in the prefrontal cortex after subjects are trained to perform a cognitive task that requires visual, short-term memory. Cognitive training has shown promise in restoring function after traumatic brain injury, in ameliorating the effects of normal aging, and improving cognitive symptoms of disorders such as Alzheimer's disease. Our results will uncover the changes in brain circuits following cognitive training and offer insights on the design of better treatment strategies for dealing with cognitive decline associated with these conditions.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01EY017077-08
Application #
8826123
Study Section
Mechanisms of Sensory, Perceptual, and Cognitive Processes Study Section (SPC)
Program Officer
Flanders, Martha C
Project Start
2006-01-01
Project End
2017-03-31
Budget Start
2015-04-01
Budget End
2017-03-31
Support Year
8
Fiscal Year
2015
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Department
Anatomy/Cell Biology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
937727907
City
Winston-Salem
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27157
Constantinidis, Christos; Qi, Xue-Lian (2018) Representation of Spatial and Feature Information in the Monkey Dorsal and Ventral Prefrontal Cortex. Front Integr Neurosci 12:31
Riley, Mitchell R; Qi, Xue-Lian; Zhou, Xin et al. (2018) Anterior-posterior gradient of plasticity in primate prefrontal cortex. Nat Commun 9:3790
Constantinidis, Christos; Funahashi, Shintaro; Lee, Daeyeol et al. (2018) Persistent Spiking Activity Underlies Working Memory. J Neurosci 38:7020-7028
Zhou, Xin; Constantinidis, Christos (2017) Fixation target representation in prefrontal cortex during the antisaccade task. J Neurophysiol 117:2152-2162
Tang, Hua; Riley, Mitchell R; Constantinidis, Christos (2017) Lateralization of Executive Function: Working Memory Advantage for Same Hemifield Stimuli in the Monkey. Front Neurosci 11:532
Murray, John D; Bernacchia, Alberto; Roy, Nicholas A et al. (2017) Stable population coding for working memory coexists with heterogeneous neural dynamics in prefrontal cortex. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:394-399
Riley, Mitchell R; Qi, Xue-Lian; Constantinidis, Christos (2017) Functional specialization of areas along the anterior-posterior axis of the primate prefrontal cortex. Cereb Cortex 27:3683-3697
Constantinidis, Christos; Klingberg, Torkel (2016) The neuroscience of working memory capacity and training. Nat Rev Neurosci 17:438-49
Zhou, Xin; Zhu, Dantong; Qi, Xue-Lian et al. (2016) Neural correlates of working memory development in adolescent primates. Nat Commun 7:13423
Riley, Mitchell R; Constantinidis, Christos (2015) Role of Prefrontal Persistent Activity in Working Memory. Front Syst Neurosci 9:181

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