Response and sample bridging in a primate short-term memory task

Hadas Sloin, Eran Stark

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Freely-moving rodents can solve short-term memory (STM) tasks using “response bridging” strategies, relying on motor patterns instead of mnemonic functions. This limits the interpretational power of results yielded by some STM tasks in rodents. To determine whether head-fixed monkeys can employ parallel non-mnemonic strategies, we measured eye position and velocity of two head-fixed monkeys performing a delayed response reaching and grasping task. We found that eye position during the delay period was correlated with reach direction. Moreover, reach direction as well as grasp object could be predicted from eye kinematics during the delay. Both eye velocity and eye position contributed to the prediction of reach direction. These results show that motor signals carry sufficient information to allow monkeys to solve STM tasks without using any mnemonic functions. Thus, the potential of animals to solve STM tasks using motor patterns is more diverse than previously recognized.

Original languageEnglish
Article number107106
JournalNeurobiology of Learning and Memory
Volume166
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2019
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Elsevier Inc.

Keywords

  • Animal cognition
  • Delayed response
  • Mediating strategies
  • Working memory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
  • Cognitive Neuroscience
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

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