An Oscillatory Mechanism for Multi-level Storage in Short-term Memory
Authors: Kathleen P. Champion, Olivia Gozel, Benjamin S. Lankow, G. Bard Ermentrout, Mark S. Goldman
PUBLICATION: BIORXIV 2021
Oscillatory activity is commonly observed during the maintenance of information in short-term memory, but its role remains unclear. Non-oscillatory models of short-term memory storage are able to encode stimulus identity through their spatial patterns of activity, but are typically limited to either an all-or-none representation of stimulus amplitude or exhibit a biologically implausible exact-tuning condition. Here, we demonstrate a simple phase-locking mechanism by which oscillatory input enables a circuit to generate persistent or sequential activity patterns that encode information not only in their location but also in their discretely graded amplitudes.