Differential excitatory-inhibitory balance within dorsolateral prefrontal cortex links inter-network interactions in working memory

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Working memory involves complex activity and interactions across multiple brain areas. However, little is known about how these large-scale activity and interaction patterns relate to resting-state activity and to excitatory and inhibitory interactions within localized brain regions. Here we show, using multimodal neuroimaging and large-scale neural network modelling, that excitatory and inhibitory neuronal activities within the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) are linked to inter-network interactions during working memory. We generate testable predictions by perturbing a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)-constrained neural network model and by performing molecular-enriched analyses using fMRI and positron emission tomography (PET) receptor maps. We then show that frontoparietal and default-mode network activity, which differs between resting state and working memory, covaries with DLPFC activity and its functional interactions with these networks. These findings provide a mechanistic account of how local excitatory and inhibitory activity may support large-scale network dynamics involved in working memory.