Traveling waves link human visual and frontal cortex during working memory–guided behavior

Traveling waves guide the spatial propagation of neural activity and computational processes across the brain. Traveling waves could contribute to the control of memory-guided behaviors by flexibly organizing the timing and direction of interactions between brain regions responsible for storing memory content with those responsible for producing task-relevant behaviors. Using short-term memory as a test case, we report evidence supporting this possibility. Analyses of human EEG data revealed forward- and backward-propagating traveling waves linking visual and motor brain areas around the time of a memory-guided behavior. These waves predicted intra- and interindividual differences in task performance, could not be explained by eye movements or passive volume conduction, and were absent when participants planned but could not execute a memory-guided behavior. These findings implicate traveling waves as a mechanism in the initiation and control of memory-guided behaviors.