A brain state is observed as spontaneous fluctuations in the absence of motor output or sensory input. These fluctuations impact neuronal firing and serve to coordinate neuronal activity. How different patterns of fluctuations might reflect different cognitive processes and whether the spatial and temporal structure of these patterns are the same in different subregions of an associative area like the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is unknown. To address this, characterization of different patterns of spontaneous fluctuations and whether they follow functional rules is needed. To capture complex network properties, high density recordings of distributed networks across multiple regions and hundreds of neurons simultaneously is crucial. Investigating the neural patterns over time and across task-features will allow for defining the functional rules of the observed dynamics associated with different states or cognitive processes.