Flexibility of internal attention: divergent spatiotemporal profiles for feature and object cueing

Internal attention efficiently prioritizes information in working memory (WM), yet it remains unclear whether it reflects a unified, domain-general mechanism, or a flexible set of operations tailored to the format of selected information. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), we characterized the spatiotemporal alpha-band dynamics underlying feature-based (color, orientation) and object-based (left, right) retro-cues that direct internal attention within WM. Behaviorally, both cue types improved performance relative to neutral conditions, with object-based cues yielding a modest advantage. Neurally, both formats elicited robust modulations of induced alpha-band (8 to 14 Hz) activity distributed across visual, frontoparietal control, and memory-related networks. These effects followed a common temporal progression from early weak modulation to mid-latency reconfiguration and sustained late activity. However, object-based cueing produced more sustained and spatially widespread alpha suppression than feature-based cueing, indicating format-dependent differences in the dynamics of internal selection. Although neural effects closely tracked behavioral benefits at the condition level, no reliable brain-behavior correlations were observed across individuals. Together, these findings suggest that internal attention operates through a shared large-scale control architecture while flexibly adapting its temporal dynamics to representational format, with alpha-band activity playing a central role in the prioritization of WM content.