Working memory retention by medial entorhinal cortex low-dimensional neural dynamics

Abstract

The ability to retain information over tens of seconds is essential for carrying out many routine tasks. Recurrently connected circuits are thought to support memory over these timescales, yet how they maintain and represent remembered information remains unclear. We asked whether the medial entorhinal cortex (mEC), where recurrent attractor dynamics generate grid-cell firing patterns and single toroidal attractor manifolds in two-dimensional environments, also supports low-dimensional neural activity patterns during memory retention. During a working-memory task, delay-period mEC dynamics did not show key features of grid firing in simple environments. Instead, broader mEC populations, not limited to grid cells, expressed multiple sequences and recurring activity patterns. Periodically repeating delay-period sequences retained task-relevant information, including past locations and future turn directions. These findings suggest that the mEC network generates low-dimensional dynamics more broadly, with grid-cell activity representing one manifestation and more complex manifold topologies supporting task-related representations during working memory.