# The Role of Persistent Activity in Visual Working Memory

> **NIH NIH F31** · WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · 2024 · $48,974

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
The proposed study will investigate the role of persistent activity of the lateral prefrontal cortex in object working
memory using a non-human primate model. Persistent activity of the prefrontal cortex has long been speculated
as the neural correlate of working memory. In recent years alternative models have been proposed, particularly
for object working memory. We hypothesize that persistent activity plays a causal role in reflecting the features
of remembered stimuli, rather merely representing parameters of the task that subjects perform or highlighting
the spatial location of remembered objects. Rhesus macaques will thus be trained in a feature working memory
task that will require them to remember and make judgments about visual stimuli. We will record neural activity
with a chronic array of microelectrodes, distributed across the surface of the lateral prefrontal cortex, both before
and after training. We will test whether the peak of population activity can explain what stimulus the monkeys
ultimately remember, and whether drift of this peak of activity over time predicts errors. We will additionally
determine how neuronal responses are affected by training by using familiar and novel stimuli in the context of
the same working memory task. Moreover, we will directly test the causality of this persistent activity by applying
microsimulation on carefully selected electrodes, to cause the animals to erroneously recall not the actual
stimulus presented, but the preferred stimulus of the site being stimulated. As a result, the proposed experiments
will determine the specific, causal mechanisms in the prefrontal cortex that are ultimately responsible for
mediating visual working memory.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10930012
- **Project number:** 5F31EY035546-02
- **Recipient organization:** WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES
- **Principal Investigator:** Rye Jaffe
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $48,974
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-01 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10930012

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10930012, The Role of Persistent Activity in Visual Working Memory (5F31EY035546-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10930012. Licensed CC0.

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