PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Lisman, JE
AU  - Idiart, MA
TI  - Storage of 7 +/- 2 short-term memories in oscillatory subcycles
AID  - 10.1126/science.7878473
DP  - 1995 Mar 10
TA  - Science
PG  - 1512--1515
VI  - 267
IP  - 5203
4099  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/267/5203/1512.short
4100  - http://science.sciencemag.org/content/267/5203/1512.full
SO  - Science1995 Mar 10; 267
AB  - Psychophysical measurements indicate that human subjects can store approximately seven short-term memories. Physiological studies suggest that short-term memories are stored by patterns of neuronal activity. Here it is shown that activity patterns associated with multiple memories can be stored in a single neural network that exhibits nested oscillations similar to those recorded from the brain. Each memory is stored in a different high-frequency ("40 hertz") subcycle of a low-frequency oscillation. Memory patterns repeat on each low-frequency (5 to 12 hertz) oscillation, a repetition that relies on activity-dependent changes in membrane excitability rather than reverberatory circuits. This work suggests that brain oscillations are a timing mechanism for controlling the serial processing of short-term memories.