The rodent prefrontal cortex maintains a “memory trace” for a gamma frequency (~ 40 Hz) rhythm

Authors' Affiliations

Deepshila Gautam, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City TN Jennifer Pharm, Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City TN

Location

D.P. Culp Center Ballroom

Start Date

4-5-2024 9:00 AM

End Date

4-5-2024 11:30 AM

Poster Number

135

Name of Project's Faculty Sponsor

Siva Digivalli

Faculty Sponsor's Department

Pharmaceutical Sciences

Classification of First Author

Clinical Doctoral Student

Competition Type

Competitive

Type

Poster Presentation

Presentation Category

Science, Technology and Engineering

Abstract or Artist's Statement

Working memory refers to one’s ability to temporarily keep and use a small amount of information for cognitive tasks. The prefrontal cortex is believed to be the primary region where such information is held temporarily. Working memory is known to be deficient in states of mental illness such as schizophrenia and is attributed to a reduction in NMDA-based neurotransmission. In our lab, we evaluate neural synchrony in response to rhythmic clicks as a marker for prefrontal cortical performance. In this study, we hypothesized that when two rhythmic inputs at 40 Hz are presented back-to-back with some time gap, the prefrontal cortex will continue to maintain a “memory trace” of the first train till it synchronizes to the second train. Evaluating progressively longer gaps, we show that a “memory trace” of the beat frequency, as recorded by the EEG, is maintained for at least 225 ms. Moreover, this memory trace was dose dependently disrupted by an NR2B selective NMDA antagonist, CP101,606 as well as the non-selective NMDA channel blocker, MK801. We conclude that rodent prefrontal cortex can maintain a “memory trace” of a rhythm up to several hundred milliseconds after stimulus and that this may involve the activation of the NR2B subtype of NMDA receptors.

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Apr 5th, 9:00 AM Apr 5th, 11:30 AM

The rodent prefrontal cortex maintains a “memory trace” for a gamma frequency (~ 40 Hz) rhythm

D.P. Culp Center Ballroom

Working memory refers to one’s ability to temporarily keep and use a small amount of information for cognitive tasks. The prefrontal cortex is believed to be the primary region where such information is held temporarily. Working memory is known to be deficient in states of mental illness such as schizophrenia and is attributed to a reduction in NMDA-based neurotransmission. In our lab, we evaluate neural synchrony in response to rhythmic clicks as a marker for prefrontal cortical performance. In this study, we hypothesized that when two rhythmic inputs at 40 Hz are presented back-to-back with some time gap, the prefrontal cortex will continue to maintain a “memory trace” of the first train till it synchronizes to the second train. Evaluating progressively longer gaps, we show that a “memory trace” of the beat frequency, as recorded by the EEG, is maintained for at least 225 ms. Moreover, this memory trace was dose dependently disrupted by an NR2B selective NMDA antagonist, CP101,606 as well as the non-selective NMDA channel blocker, MK801. We conclude that rodent prefrontal cortex can maintain a “memory trace” of a rhythm up to several hundred milliseconds after stimulus and that this may involve the activation of the NR2B subtype of NMDA receptors.