Novel Interaction between Prefrontal and Parietal Cortex during Memory Guided Saccades

Abstract

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) are linked to each other by direct reciprocal connections and by numerous pathways that traverse other areas. The nature of the functional coordination mediated by the interconnecting pathways is not well understood. To cast light on this issue, we simultaneously monitored neuronal activity in DLPFC (areas FEF and 8a) and PPC (areas LIP and 7a) while monkeys performed a memory guided saccade task. On measuring the spike-count correlation, a measure of the tendency for firing rates to covary across trials, we found that the DLPFC-PPC correlation became negative at the time of the saccade if and only if the neurons had matching spatial preferences and the target was at their mutually preferred location. The push-pull coordination underlying the negative spike-count correlation may help to ensure that saccadic commands emanating from DLPFC and PPC sum a constant value.