Motor Areas Serve Attention: Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging on Memory-Driven versus Stimulus-Driven Sequencing

Serial prediction of perceptual events engages the premotor cortex (PM) in the absence of motor requirements, supporting attentional functions in this area. The present fMRI study used a modified serial prediction task (SPT) to investigate whether mesial and lateral portions of PM may support different sub-functions of this task. According to the canonical view on motor functions, mesial PM (pre-supplementary motor area, preSMA) serves internally driven processes rather than externally driven ones, whereas the opposite is true for the lateral PM. Capitalizing on this dichotomy, the present study introduced a par…