Functional and anatomical organization of lateral prefrontal cortex for memory

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event Functional and anatomical organization of lateral prefrontal cortex for memory Michael Petrides1, 2* 1 Montreal Neurological Institute, Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Canada 2 McGill University, Department of Psychology, Canada The lateral prefrontal cortex consists of many areas that differ in terms of their architectonic structure and their inputs from and outputs to other cortical and subcortical brain regions. There is considerable evidence that the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (areas 46 and 9/46) is part of a wider fronto-parietal network critical for working memory processing. In the past, evidence was provided for the critical role of the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in the monitoring of information in working memory, but the role of the posterior parietal cortex has proven elusive. Recent research with functional magnetic resonance imaging has now provided evidence that the posterior parietal cortex plays a critical role in the manipulation of information during working memory processing. In contrast to the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the mid-ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (areas 45 and 47/12) plays a critical role in controlled memory retrieval. The evidence has been obtained primarily from functional neuroimaging studies with normal human subjects that provide information about engagement of a cortical area in a cognitive process but no information on the neural computations performed. We have therefore examined the activity of single neurons in macaque monkeys during the performance of a controlled retrieval task identical to a task used in functional neuroimaging studies with humans. This task required the retrieval of a particular dimension from a recent multimodal memory experience. This research demonstrated the existence of neurons in this part of the prefrontal cortex that appear to code the isolation of specific information from an event in memory: their firing is a function of current information in memory and retrieval instruction. Thus, the mid-dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (areas 46 and 9/46) is specialized in the tracking of events that occupy working memory and works in concert with posterior parietal cortex for the manipulation of information in working memory, while the mid-ventrolateral prefrontal region (areas 45 and 47/12) is selectively involved in the active controlled retrieval of information memory. Conference: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting, Rhodes Island, Greece, 13 Sep - 18 Sep, 2009. Presentation Type: Oral Presentation Topic: Plenary lectures Citation: Petrides M (2009). Functional and anatomical organization of lateral prefrontal cortex for memory. Conference Abstract: 41st European Brain and Behaviour Society Meeting. doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.08.2009.09.007 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 04 Jun 2009; Published Online: 04 Jun 2009. * Correspondence: Michael Petrides, Montreal Neurological Institute, Cognitive Neuroscience Unit, Montréal, Canada, michael.petrides@mcgill.ca Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Michael Petrides Google Michael Petrides Google Scholar Michael Petrides PubMed Michael Petrides Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.