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Poster Session B: Wednesday, August 13, 1:00 – 4:00 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

Dynamic Changes in Neural Manifolds During Working Memory

Aniol Santo-Angles¹, Mate Gyurkovics, J. Matias Palva, Gregor Thut, Satu Palva; ¹University of Helsinki

Presenter: Aniol Santo-Angles

How cognitive operations supporting working memory, the ability to actively hold and manipulate information, are implemented through neural computations remains a topic of ongoing debate. Neuronal recordings in non-human primates suggest that working memory contents are encoded and maintained in low-dimensional representations, known as neural manifolds, with cognitive operations occurring through dynamic changes within these manifolds. In the present study, we tested this hypothesis using magneto- and encephalography data from human participants collected during a working memory task. In the task, a retro-cue required maintaining, inhibiting or updating memory representations of two stimulus features: orientation and shape. We found that the size of neural subspaces encoding stimuli during the delay period dynamically changed with task demands, expanding or shrinking based on shifts in the relevance of stimulus features. These findings support the role of manifold dynamics in working memory.

Topic Area: Memory, Spatial Cognition & Skill Learning

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