Working Memory Maintenance: Sustained Firing or Synaptic Mechanisms?

According to conventional views, holding information in working memory (WM) involves elevated and persistent neuronal firing. This has been challenged by models in which WM maintenance is implemented by activity-silent synaptic mechanisms. A new study suggests that both have a role, consistent with cognitive models positing several states of WM. However, do these states reflect the operation of attention or awareness?

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