Journal
ELIFE
Volume 9, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
eLIFE SCIENCES PUBL LTD
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.61277
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Funding
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada [CGSD3-488052-2016]
- Katzin Prize
- Alexander von Humboldt Foundation
- Alfred P. Sloan Foundation [FG-2015-66057]
- Whitehall Foundation [2017-12-73]
- National Science Foundation [BCS-1736028]
- National Institutes of Health [R01GM134363-01]
- School of Medicine, UC San Diego Shiley-Marcos Alzheimer's Disease Research Center
- Halicioglu Data Science Institute Fellowship
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Complex cognitive functions such as working memory and decision-making require information maintenance over seconds to years, from transient sensory stimuli to long-term contextual cues. While theoretical accounts predict the emergence of a corresponding hierarchy of neuronal timescales, direct electrophysiological evidence across the human cortex is lacking. Here, we infer neuronal timescales from invasive intracranial recordings. Timescales increase along the principal sensorimotor-to-association axis across the entire human cortex, and scale with single-unit timescales within macaques. Cortex-wide transcriptomic analysis shows direct alignment between timescales and expression of excitation- and inhibition-related genes, as well as genes specific to voltage-gated transmembrane ion transporters. Finally, neuronal timescales are functionally dynamic: prefrontal cortex timescales expand during working memory maintenance and predict individual performance, while cortex-wide timescales compress with aging. Thus, neuronal timescales follow cytoarchitectonic gradients across the human cortex and are relevant for cognition in both short and long terms, bridging microcircuit physiology with macroscale dynamics and behavior.
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