{
  "id": 4053914,
  "title": "Gradients of function between sensory drive and working memory in human frontal cortex",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/28/gradients-of-function-between-sensory-drive-and-working-memory-in",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-08-28T00:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "bioRxiv",
    "slug": "biorxiv",
    "url": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.25.747005v1?rss=1"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "The coordination between sensory processing and working memory (WM) is crucial for cognitive function. While the spatial arrangement of these functions across the cortex is known to be broad, the fine-scale organization at their interfaces is not well understood. Recent research suggests that some cortical areas exhibit graded changes in both function and anatomy. Drawing from this evidence and considering potential benefits of a graded organizational structure in the frontal cortex, researchers hypothesized that sensory-WM interfaces in this region follow a gradient-like pattern rather than a distinct boundary.\n\nThe study examined twenty bilateral cortical regions involved in visual and auditory WM tasks. In five frontal cortical regions, group-level WM activation was found to overlap with sensory drive but was spatially shifted. Researchers then compared two models: one assuming boundary-like changes in function and the other suggesting gradient-like changes. Strong individual-level evidence for sensory-WM gradients was observed in pre-supplementary motor area, ventral premotor cortex, and anterior insula in both visual and auditory modalities. Similarly, dorsal premotor cortex showed evidence for gradients in visual WM.\n\nHowever, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex yielded mixed results. In the left hemisphere, it supported distinct WM and sensory regions with clear boundaries. In the right hemisphere, there was some evidence for gradients. Overall, the findings suggest that sensory and WM regions within the frontal cortex are not discrete with sharp boundaries at their interfaces but instead blend together to form local rostral-caudal sensory-WM gradients. The authors speculate that these gradients may facilitate efficient interaction between sensory and WM representations, as well as fine-grained, task-dependent shifting between sensory-driven bottom-up processes and top-down influences.",
  "summary": "The coordination of sensory processing and working memory (WM) is fundamental to cognition. Spatial organization of sensory processing and WM is known to be broadly distributed across the cortex, but finer-scale organization at the interfaces between these functions remains understudied. Although the notion of sharp parcellations of cortex into distinct functional modules dominates the field, a…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}