Distinct Functional Connectivity Patterns of Brain Networks Involved in Motor Planning Underlie Verbal and Spatial Working Memory

Abstract

Purpose

Frontoparietal networks (FPN) are well-recognized for their role in high-level cognition, including mental imagery, executive control, and working memory (WM). A prevailing hypothesis advances that these functions evolved from fundamental motor abilities, such as action planning and motor control. However, whether sensorimotor regions of these FPN contribute to the executive components of WM, and whether this contribution is dependent on task modality, remains underexplored.

Method

This study applied analyses of resting-state functional connectivity (rs-FC) to investigate the contribution of FPN regions to WM that have an established role in motor planning. In a sample of 60 healthy individuals, we explored whether performance in verbal and spatial N-back WM tasks is associated with rs-FC of frontoparietal brain regions that exhibit increased activation during motor planning.

Finding

Comparing verbal and spatial N-back tasks revealed that verbal WM was associated with stronger connectivity between the left medial superior frontal gyrus and left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), as well as the right IPL and the left superior parietal lobule. In contrast, spatial WM was linked to stronger connectivity between the right middle frontal and inferior temporal gyrus, as well as the left occipital pole and postcentral gyrus.

Conclusion

These findings reveal distinct FC patterns underlying verbal and spatial WM and highlight the contribution of brain regions that are important for motor planning to modality-specific WM processes, such as information updating.