Short-Term Memory for Space and Time Flexibly Recruit Complementary Sensory-Biased Frontal Lobe Attention Networks.
The frontal lobes control wide-ranging cognitive functions; however, functional subdivisions of human frontal cortex are only coarsely mapped. Here, functional magnetic resonance imaging reveals two distinct visual-biased attention regions in lateral frontal cortex, superior precentral sulcus (sPCS) and inferior precentral sulcus (iPCS), anatomically interdigitated with two auditory-biased attention regions, transverse gyrus intersecting precentral sulcus (tgPCS) and caudal inferior frontal sulcus (cIFS). Intrinsic functional connectivity analysis demonstrates that sPCS and iPCS fall within a broad visual-attention network, while tgPCS and cIFS fall within a broad auditory-attention network. Interestingly, we observe that spatial and temporal short-term memory (STM), respectively, recruit visual and auditory attention networks in the frontal lobe, independent of sensory modality. These findings not only demonstrate that both sensory modality and information domain influence frontal lobe functional organization, they also demonstrate that spatial processing co-localizes with visual processing and that temporal processing co-localizes with auditory processing in lateral frontal cortex.
Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Graduate Program for Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Electronic address: samantha.michalka@gmail.com.
Samantha W
SW
Michalka
Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Lingqiang
L
Kong
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Maya L
ML
Rosen
Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Barbara G
BG
Shinn-Cunningham
Center for Computational Neuroscience and Neural Technology, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA; Graduate Program for Neuroscience, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Electronic address: somers@bu.edu.
David C
DC
Somers
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D013037:Spatial Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult