How does the brain keep in mind a phone number before dialling? Working memory is an essential component of cognition, allowing the brain to remember information temporarily and use it to guide future behaviour. While many previous studies have revealed the involvement of several brain areas, until now it remained unclear as to how these multiple regions interact to represent and maintain working memory.
In a new study, published today in Nature, neuroscientists at the Sainsbury Wellcome Centre at UCL investigated the reciprocal interactions between two brain regions that represent visual working memory in mice. The team found that communication between these two loci of working memory, parietal cortex and premotor cortex, was co-dependent on instantaneous timescales.
“There are many different types of working memory and over the past 40 years scientists have been trying to work out…
