Selective control of prefrontal neural timescales by parietal cortex.

The frontal eye field (FEF) and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) are key hubs of the dorsal attention network, yet how parietal inputs shape prefrontal circuit temporal dynamics and attentional computations remains largely unknown. We measured intrinsic timescales of FEF neurons in male rhesus macaques and examined their changes during PPC inactivation. We observed two distinct classes of FEF neurons based on their intrinsic timescales: short-timescale neurons (~25 ms) and long-timescale neurons (~100 ms). Short-timescale neurons showed stronger transient visual responses, suggesting a role in rapid visual processing. In contrast, long-timescale neurons exhibited stronger sustained salience representation, suggesting a role in spatiotemporal integration to maintain stimulus-driven attention. During PPC inactivation, intrinsic timescales increased in both neuron types, with a substantially larger effect in short-timescale neurons. In addition, PPC inactivation selectively disrupted salience computation, particularly in long-timescale neurons. These findings provide causal evidence linking intrinsic local neural timescales to long-range inter-area communication and indicate the presence of at least two distinct network motifs that support different neuronal dynamics and functional computations within the FEF.