This $553,788 Project Grant awarded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) under the Mental Health Research Grants program (CFDA 93.242) will support research at Northwestern University to investigate the microcircuit mechanisms that underlie distributed cortical contributions to working memory. The researchers will develop a new working memory paradigm for mice and use cutting-edge techniques like two-photon calcium imaging and optogenetic stimulation to compare how the primary visual cortex and premotor cortex differentially encode working memory. This work aims to elucidate how distinct inhibitory interneuron subtypes modulate excitatory neural activity timescales to give rise to the observed distributed working memory representations across the cortex. The findings have potential translational implications for understanding the neural basis of working memory deficits in conditions like normal aging, autism, and schizophrenia.
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