RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 More Prominent Nonlinear Mixed Selectivity in the Dorsolateral Prefrontal than Posterior Parietal Cortex JF eneuro JO eNeuro FD Society for Neuroscience SP ENEURO.0517-21.2022 DO 10.1523/ENEURO.0517-21.2022 VO 9 IS 2 A1 Dang, Wenhao A1 Li, Sihai A1 Pu, Shusen A1 Qi, Xue-Lian A1 Constantinidis, Christos YR 2022 UL http://www.eneuro.org/content/9/2/ENEURO.0517-21.2022.abstract AB Neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) are activated by different cognitive tasks and respond differently to the same stimuli depending on task. The conjunctive representations of multiple tasks in nonlinear fashion in single neuron activity, is known as nonlinear mixed selectivity (NMS). Here, we compared NMS in a working memory task in areas 8a and 46 of the dlPFC and 7a and lateral intraparietal cortex (LIP) of the PPC in macaque monkeys. NMS neurons were more frequent in dlPFC than in PPC and this was attributed to more cells gaining selectivity in the course of a trial. Additionally, in our task, the subjects’ behavioral performance improved within a behavioral session as they learned the session-specific statistics of the task. The magnitude of NMS in the dlPFC also increased as a function of time within a single session. On the other hand, we observed minimal rotation of population responses and no appreciable differences in NMS between correct and error trials in either area. Our results provide direct evidence demonstrating a specialization in NMS between dlPFC and PPC and reveal mechanisms of neural selectivity in areas recruited in working memory tasks.