Sat, 26 Jul 2008 16:56:34 BST CiteULike: awooga facilitation http://www.citeulike.org/user/awooga/tag/facilitation CiteULike.org en-gb Copyright © 2004-2008 citeulike.org http://www.citeulike.org/user/awooga/article/2531838 <i>Science, Vol. 319, No. 5869. (14 March 2008), pp. 1543-1546.</i><br /><br />It is usually assumed that enhanced spiking activity in the form of persistent reverberation for several seconds is the neural correlate of working memory. Here, we propose that working memory is sustained by calcium-mediated synaptic facilitation in the recurrent connections of neocortical networks. In this account, the presynaptic residual calcium is used as a buffer that is loaded, refreshed, and read out by spiking activity. Because of the long time constants of calcium kinetics, the refresh rate can be low, resulting in a mechanism that is metabolically efficient and robust. The duration and stability of working memory can be regulated by modulating the spontaneous activity in the network. 10.1126/science.1150769 Synaptic Theory of Working Memory Gianluigi Mongillo Omri Barak Misha Tsodyks doi:10.1126/science.1150769 Science, Vol. 319, No. 5869. (14 March 2008), pp. 1543-1546. 2008-03-14T12:03:46-00:00 2008 Science 319 5869 1543 1546 depression facilitation model working-memory