Gradients of functional organization in posterior parietal cortex revealed by visual attention, visual short-term memory, and intrinsic functional connectivity

Abstract

Visual attention and visual working memory tasks recruit a common network of lateral frontal cortical (LFC) and posterior parietal cortical (PPC) regions. Here, we examine finer-scale organization of this frontoparietal network. Three LFC regions recruited by visual cognition tasks, superior precentral sulcus (sPCS), inferior precentral sulcus (iPCS), and mid inferior frontal sulcus (midIFS) exhibit differential patterns of resting-state functional connectivity to PPC. A broad dorsomedial to ventrolateral gradient is observed, with sPCS connectivity dominating in the dorsomedial PPC band, iPCS dominating in the middle band, and midIFS dominating in the ventrolateral band. These connectivity-defined subregions of PPC capture differential task activation between a pair of visual attention and working memory tasks. The relative functional connectivity of sPCS and iPCS also varies along the rostral-caudal axis of the retinotopic regions of PPC. iPCS connectivity is relatively stronger near the IPS0/IPS1 and IPS2/IPS3 borders, especially on the lateral portions of these borders, which each preferentially encode central visual field representations. In contrast, sPCS connectivity is relatively stronger elsewhere in retinotopic IPS regions which preferentially encode peripheral visual field representations. These findings reveal fine-scale gradients in functional connectivity within the frontoparietal visual network that capture a high-degree of specificity in PPC functional organization.