Fig. 2: Functional connectivity-based perspective on WM.

a A hypothesis of how spectrotemporal modulation features such as the “ripple velocity” or ω are represented in auditory WM. Different subregions of auditory cortex located in STC, as well subregions of higher frontoparietal areas connected to each subregion of auditory cortex^{44,45,46,61,77}, could show best sensitivity to different ω values. The connectivity patterns between STC and frontoparietal areas responsive to ripple sounds could, thus, be arranged according to the prefrred or “best” ω (gray dotted arrows). We specifically hypothesized that functional connectivity between STC and frontoparietal areas could be modulated in content specific fashion during WM maintenance (red arrow)^16,33. b Regions of interest (ROI) for our connectivity-based MVPAs testing our main hypothesis. The eight major ROIs are shown on a semi-inflated standard brain surface (left hemisphere, lateral and medial views). Each major ROI was further divided to subROIs (average area 157 mm²). The ROI-to-ROI connectivity patterns were defined as the connectivity matrices from across all their subROIs, analogously to our previous MEG studies^33,48,49,91. Occipital cortex (OC) was included as a control area. The details of ROI definitions and analysis procedures are provided in Methods. Abbreviations not specified above: IFG inferior frontal gyrus, MFG middle frontal gyrus, PC precentral cortex, SPL superior temporal lobule, SMG supramarginal gyrus, AG angular gyrus.