Remembering and the prefrontal cortex

Abstract

This paper comments on a recent article by Daniel L. Schacter (1987) that reviewed the function of the frontal lobes in remembering. Schacter concluded that the frontal lobes are involved in spatiotemporal contextual processing of memorial information, and that this aspect of context is processed in a relatively automatic fashion. The present paper supports Schacter’s contention that the frontal lobes are involved in the temporal context of memory, but their role in the spatial context is questioned, given its limited empirical support. It is, instead, suggested that structures in the medial temporal lobe region, primarily the hippocampus, may play a more critical role in processing spatial contextual memory.