Elucidation of local neural networks for supporting while limiting cognitive functions

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25890001
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Neurophysiology / General neuroscience
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo (2014); Hokkaido University (2013)
• Principal Investigator: MATSUSHIMA Ayano 東京大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 特任助教 (10706740)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-08-30 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 高次機能 / ワーキングメモリ / 選択的注意

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Humans can remember or attend to multiple moving objects at the same time. The number of objects that can be held in memory or attention is known to be larger when visual stimuli are presented bilaterally rather than presented unilaterally. To elucidate the underlying neuronal mechanism, we trained monkeys with two cognitive tasks; multiple memory-guided saccade task and multiple object tracking task. We found that neurons in the lateral prefrontal cortex exhibited greater activity for bilateral than for unilateral stimuli. Considering the inherent, anatomical separation of contralateral and ipsilateral visual processing, our data might reflect the stronger interaction of mnemonic and attentional signals for multiple objects presented unilaterally than those presented bilaterally.

Free Research Field

システム神経科学