Common neural mechanisms supporting spatial working memory, attention and motor intention

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) are critical neural substrates for working memory. Neural activity persists in these regions during the maintenance of a working memory representation. Persistent activity, therefore, may be the neural mechanism by which information is temporarily maintained. However, the nature of the representation or what is actually being represented by this persistent activity is not well understood. In this review, we summarize the recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies conducted in our laboratory that test hypotheses about the nature of persistent activity during a variety of spatial cognition tasks. We find that the same areas in the PFC and PPC that show persistent activity during the maintenance of a working memory representation also show persistent activity during the maintenance of spatial attention and the maintenance of motor intention. Therefore, we conclude that persistent activity is not specific to working memory, but instead, carries information that can be used generally to support a variety of cognitions. Specifically, activity in topographically organized maps of prioritized space in PFC and PPC could be read out to guide attention allocation, spatial memory, and motor planning.