Identifying the processes by which people remember to execute an intention at an appropriate moment (prospective memory) remains a fundamental theoretical challenge. One account is that top-down attentional control is required to maintain activation of the intention, self-initiate intention retrieval, or support monitoring. A diverging account suggests bottom-up spontaneous retrieval can be triggered by cues that have been associated with the intention; sustained attentional processes are not required. We used a specialized experimental design and fMRI methods to selectively marshal and identify each process. Results revealed a clear dissociation. One prospective memory task recruited sustained activity in attentional control areas, such as anterior prefrontal cortex; the other engaged purely transient activity in parietal and ventral brain regions associated with attentional capture, target detection, and episodic retrieval. These patterns provide critical evidence that there are two neural routes to prospective memory, with each route emerging under different circumstances.
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