Figure 1. A rate model to reconcile cholinergic modulation of behavior and neural tuning in an ODR task.

A. Visuospatial WM task with distraction (Qi et al., 2021). B. Performance of the monkeys in control and NB-stimulated trials. Performance was measured as percent of trials with responses within 7º visual angle of the target stimulus. C. Prefrontal neuron location selectivity in the delay period (adapted from Qi et al., 2021). Blue: control trials. Orange: NB-Stimulated trials. Dots: data. Lines: fits. D. Network scheme. The network consists of a population of 1000 rate units with tuned connections. E. Activity vs. neurons vs. time, left: NB OFF ($I_0{ }^{OFF}=10Hz$) condition, right: NB ON condition ($I_0{ }^{ON}=I_0{ }^{OFF}+20Hz$, simulates increased excitability induced by NB stimulation). After 1s in baseline activity, neurons receive a tuned stimulus, S1, and a nonspecific attention signal is switched on. The activity becomes structured into a bump. The bump is only slightly perturbed by a second weak stimulus, S2, so the bump maintains a location around S1. Triangles show the locations of the stimuli.