Effector-dependent modulation of working memory maintenance in posterior parietal cortex

Working memory (WM) is the key process linking perception to action. Several lines of research have, accordingly, highlighted WMs engagement in sensori-motor associations between retrospective stimuli and future behavior. Using human fMRI we investigated whether prior information about the effector used to report in a WM task would have an impact on the way the same sensory stimulus is maintained in memory - even if a behavioral response could not be readily planned. Specifically, we focused on WM-related activity in posterior parietal cortex during the maintenance of spatial items for a subsequent match-to-sample comparison, which was reported either with a verbal or with a manual response. We expected WM activity to be higher for manual response trials, because of posterior parietal cortexs engagement in both spatial WM and hand movement preparation. Increased fMRI activity for manual response trials in bilateral anterior intraparietal sulcus confirmed our expectations. These results imply that the maintenance of sensory material in WM is optimized for motor context of the upcoming behavioral responses.