Spatial working memory in the human frontal eye fields

Persistent activity during the delay period of a working memory task is compelling evidence that the activity reflects a memory representation. Frontal, parietal, and subcortical brain areas all show evidence of persistent activity during spatial working memory delays. My recent work, however, has focused not on which parts of the brain are active during working memory delays, but instead on what might persistent activity represent. In other words, what is being coded for by persistent activity? During a memory delay, one may need to keep active a past perceptual event, a retrospective sensory code, or a future action, a prospective motor code, in order to link events that are separated in time but are contingent upon one another. I will present data from a series of event-related fMRI studies that have focused on the role of human frontal eye fields (FEF) in spatial working memory. These studies suggest that a mechanism by which the FEF supports spatial working memory is through the maintenance of saccadic intentions.