Rostral PFC Research Articles

Prefrontal cortical activation associated with prospective memory while walking around a real-world street environment

Rostral PFC (area 10) activation is common during prospective memory (PM) tasks. But it is not clear what mental processes these activations index. Three candidate explanations from cognitive neuroscience theory are: (i) monitoring of the environment; (ii) spontaneous intention retrieval; (iii) a combination of the two. These explanations make different predictions about the temporal and spatial patterns of activation that would be seen in rostral PFC in naturalistic settings. Accordingly, we plotted functional events in PFC using portable fNIRS while people were carrying out a PM task outside the lab and responding to cues when they were encountered, to decide between these explanations. Nineteen people were asked to walk around a street in London, U.K. and perform various tasks while also remembering to respond to prospective memory (PM) cues when they detected them. The prospective memory cues could be either social (involving greeting a person) or non-social (interacting with a parking meter) in nature. There were also a number of contrast conditions which allowed us to determine activation specifically related to the prospective memory components of the tasks. We found that maintaining both social and non-social intentions was associated with widespread activation within medial and right hemisphere rostral prefrontal cortex (BA 10), in agreement with numerous previous lab-based fMRI studies of prospective memory. In addition, increased activation was found within lateral prefrontal cortex (BA 45 and 46) when people were maintaining a social intention compared to a non-social one. The data were then subjected to a GLM-based method for automatic identification of functional events (AIDE), and the position of the participants at the time of the activation events were located on a map of the physical space. The results showed that the spatial and temporal distribution of these events was not random, but aggregated around areas in which the participants appeared to retrieve their future intentions (i.e., where they saw intentional cues), as well as where they executed them. Functional events were detected most frequently in BA 10 during the PM conditions compared to other regions and tasks. Mobile fNIRS can be used to measure higher cognitive functions of the prefrontal cortex in “real world” situations outside the laboratory in freely ambulant individuals. The addition of a “brain-first” approach to the data permits the experimenter to determine not only when haemodynamic changes occur, but also where the participant was when it happened. This can be extremely valuable when trying to link brain and cognition.

319. Depressive Response and the Rostral PFC: A Novel Assessment of Emotional ׳Theory of Mind׳ Changes Following rTMS

319. Depressive Response and the Rostral PFC: A Novel Assessment of Emotional ׳Theory of Mind׳ Changes Following rTMS

Trends in overdose deaths after release from state prison, 1999–2009

than CPs in the striatum, orbital frontal cortex and mPFC. Finally, CUs had greater activity in the striatum, rostral PFC and inf. PFC during C–M than M–M, M–C and C–C. Conclusions:We showthat devaluing future rewards in cocaine users is greatest when cocaine is the immediately available reinforcer. Furthermore, cross-commodity devaluing in cocaine users involves the allocation of functional resources towards choosing the presently available cocaine option. Financial support: Supported by NIDA DA040241.

Age differences in the frontoparietal cognitive control network: Implications for distractibility

Current evidence suggests that older adults have reduced suppression of, and greater implicit memory for, distracting stimuli, due to age-related declines in frontal-based control mechanisms. In this study, we used fMRI to examine age differences in the neural underpinnings of attentional control and their relationship to differences in distractibility and subsequent memory for distraction. Older and younger adults were shown a rapid stream of words or nonwords superimposed on objects and performed a 1-back task on either the letters or the objects, while ignoring the other modality. Older adults were more distracted than younger adults by the overlapping words during the 1-back task, and they subsequently showed more priming for these words on an implicit memory task. A multivariate analysis of the imaging data revealed a set of regions, including the rostral PFC and inferior parietal cortex, that younger adults activated to a greater extent than older adults during the ignore-words condition, and activity in this set of regions was negatively correlated with priming for the distracting words. Functional connectivity analyses using right and left rostral PFC seeds revealed a network of putative control regions, including bilateral parietal cortex, connected to the frontal seeds at rest. Older adults showed reduced functional connectivity within this frontoparietal network, suggesting that their greater distractibility may be due to decreased activity and coherence within a cognitive control network that normally acts to reduce interference from distraction.

Functional neuroimaging studies of prospective memory: What have we learnt so far?

The complexity of the behaviour described by the term “prospective memory” meant that it was not at all clear, when the earliest studies were conducted, that this would prove a fruitful area for neuroimaging study. However, a consistent relation rapidly emerged between activation in rostral prefrontal cortex (approximating Brodmann Area 10) and performance of prospective memory paradigms. This consistency has greatly increased the accumulation of findings, since each study has offered perspectives on the previous ones. Considerable help too has come from broad agreement between functional neuroimaging findings and those from other methods (e.g. human lesion studies, electrophysiology). The result has been a quite startling degree of advance given the relatively few studies that have been conducted. These findings are summarised, along with those from other brain regions, and new directions suggested. Key points are that there is a medial–lateral dissociation within rostral PFC. Some (but not all) regions of medial rostral PFC are typically more active during performance of the ongoing task only, and lateral aspects are relatively more active during conditions involving delayed intentions. Some of these rostral PFC activations seem remarkably insensitive to the form of stimulus material presented, the nature of the ongoing task, the specifics of the intention, how easy or hard the PM cue is to detect, or the intended action is to recall. However there are other regions within rostral PFC where haemodynamic changes vary with alterations in these, and other, aspects of prospective memory paradigms. It is concluded that rostral PFC most likely plays a super-ordinate role during many stages of creating, maintaining and enacting delayed intentions, which in some cases may be linked to recent evidence showing that this brain region is involved in the control of stimulus-oriented vs. stimulus-independent attending. Other key brain regions activated during prospective memory paradigms appear to be the parietal lobe, especially Brodmann Area (BA) 40 and precuneus (BA 7), and the anterior cingulate (BA 32). These regions are often co-activated with lateral rostral PFC across a wide range of tasks, not just those involving prospective memory.

Knowing Your Lines but Missing Your Cue: Rostral Prefrontal Lesions Impair Prospective Memory Cue Detection, but Not Action-intention Superiority

Prospective memory (PM) deficits are a common consequence of lesions to PFC, but their underlying neurocognitive mechanisms and processes are poorly understood. Here, we report on a patient, Z. P., who suffers from a chronic focal PM deficit, while other cognitive functions including memory are intact. His lesion involves right polar PFC (Brodmann's areas 10 and 9). Z. P. was very impaired on tasks that require detection of PM cues during an ongoing task. He was impaired regardless of whether the PM cues involved effortful or nearly effortless detection on the part of controls. By contrast, on tasks that tap the underlying (implicit) representations of intentions to perform an action, Z. P. showed normal patterns of intention superiority effects (ISEs) for to-be-performed actions and an inhibition effect for prospective actions after they had been performed. Thus, this is the first report of a neuropsychological dissociation between preserved privileged representation of prospective intentions and impaired detection of cues that support the opportune recovery of PM. Our data are compatible with the "gateway hypothesis" of rostral PFC, but also suggest there are components that are unique to PM and that remain intact after lesions to this region.

Modulation of the cortical false belief network during development

The ability to represent false beliefs is commonly considered as to be the critical test for having a Theory of Mind (ToM). For correct predictions or explanations of other peoples' behavior it is necessary to understand that mental states are sometimes independent of reality and misrepresent the real state of the world. In contrast, when people hold true beliefs, predictions and explanations about behavior can simply be derived from reality. Previous neuroimaging studies with adults suggest that the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) and the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ) are engaged in false belief reasoning. However, studies investigating the neural correlates of belief reasoning in children are rare. Using cartoon stories that depicted an unexpected transfer, we compared false belief reasoning with true belief reasoning in children of a narrow age range between 10 and 12 years and in adults. In both groups, the dorsal medial frontal cortex was activated during false versus true belief reasoning. In contrast to adults, children did not selectively recruit the rTPJ during false belief reasoning. We found a group by belief interaction in the right rostral PFC and the posterior cingulate cortex. In these areas, children compared to adults showed increased activity associated with false belief reasoning in contrast to true belief reasoning. These results implicate modulation of the cortical network that underlies false belief reasoning during development and far beyond the time children successfully master false belief tasks.

Rostral PFC: Gateway Between Imaginings and Happenings

Rostral PFC: Gateway Between Imaginings and Happenings

Functional Connectivity between Distinct Subregions within Rostral Prefrontal Cortex (BA 10) and Other Brain Areas: A Cluster Analysis

Event Abstract Back to Event Functional Connectivity between Distinct Subregions within Rostral Prefrontal Cortex (BA 10) and Other Brain Areas: A Cluster Analysis P W Burgess1, S. J. Gilbert1 and G. Gonen Yaacovi1* 1 Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Queen Square, United Kingdom The rostral PFC has distinctive features that distinguish it from other regions in the brain. However, the functions of this area have not been researched thoroughly. In the present study a cluster analysis of 102 functional neuroimaging studies (using positron emission tomography/functional magnetic resonance imaging) was performed in order to examine the functional connectivity between distinct regions within the rostral prefrontal cortex and other areas in the brain. The cluster analysis evaluated three subdivisions within the rostral prefrontal cortex: medial-lateral, caudal-rostral, and superior-inferior. The strongest and most distinct evidence for functional connectivity was found along the medial-lateral axis where medial rostral prefrontal cortex tended to be co-activated with clusters in the right and left temporal lobe and the right limbic lobe, while lateral rostral prefrontal cortex tended to be co-activated with clusters in the right and left frontal lobe and the right parietal lobe. These findings place important constraints on theorizing about both the function and the connections of the rostral PFC in relation to other brain regions. Conference: The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes, Toronto, Canada, 22 Mar - 26 Mar, 2010. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Cognitive Neuroscience Citation: Burgess P, Gilbert SJ and Gonen Yaacovi G (2010). Functional Connectivity between Distinct Subregions within Rostral Prefrontal Cortex (BA 10) and Other Brain Areas: A Cluster Analysis. Conference Abstract: The 20th Annual Rotman Research Institute Conference, The frontal lobes. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.14.00120 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: 30 Jun 2010; Published Online: 30 Jun 2010. * Correspondence: G. Gonen Yaacovi, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Queen Square, London, United Kingdom, g.gonen@ucl.ac.uk 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 P W Burgess S. J Gilbert G. Gonen Yaacovi Google P W Burgess S. J Gilbert G. Gonen Yaacovi Google Scholar P W Burgess S. J Gilbert G. Gonen Yaacovi PubMed P W Burgess S. J Gilbert G. Gonen Yaacovi 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.

Encoding the future: Successful processing of intentions engages predictive brain networks

Evidence from cognitive, patient and neuroimaging research indicates that “remembering to remember” intentions, i.e., prospective memory (PM) retrieval, requires both general memory systems involving the medial temporal lobes and an executive system involving rostral PFC (BA 10). However, it is not known how prospective memories are initially formed. Using fMRI, we investigated whether brain activity during encoding of future intentions and present actions differentially predicted later memory for those same intentions (PM) and actions (retrospective memory). We identified two significant patterns of neural activity: a network linked to overall memory and another linked specifically to PM. While overall memory success was predicted by temporal lobe activations that included the hippocampus, PM success was also uniquely predicted by activations in additional regions, including left rostrolateral PFC and the right parahippocampal gyrus. This finding extends the role of these structures to the formation of individual intentions. It also provides the first evidence that PM encoding, like PM retrieval, is supported by both a common episodic memory network and an executive network specifically recruited by future-oriented processing.

Preliminary evidence for progressive prefrontal abnormalities in adolescents and young adults with bipolar disorder

Previous cross-sectional study of ventral prefrontal cortex (VPFC) implicated progressive volume abnormalities during adolescence in bipolar disorder (BD). In the present study, a within-subject, longitudinal design was implemented to examine brain volume changes during adolescence/young adulthood. We hypothesized that VPFC volume decreases over time would be greater in adolescents/young adults with BD than in healthy comparison adolescents/young adults. Eighteen adolescents/young adults (10 with BD I and 8 healthy comparison participants) underwent two high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging scans over approximately 2 years. Regional volume changes over time were measured. Adolescents/young adults with BD displayed significantly greater volume loss over time, compared to healthy comparison participants, in a region encompassing VPFC and rostral PFC and extending to rostral anterior cingulate cortex (p < .05). Additional areas where volume change differed between groups were observed. While data should be interpreted cautiously due to modest sample size, this study provides preliminary evidence to support the presence of accelerated loss in VPFC and rostral PFC volume in adolescents/young adults with BD.

Function and localization within rostral prefrontal cortex (area 10)

We propose that rostral prefrontal cortex (PFC; approximating area 10) supports a cognitive system that facilitates either stimulus-oriented (SO) or stimulus-independent (SI) attending. SO attending is the behaviour required to concentrate on current sensory input, whereas SI attending is the mental processing that accompanies self-generated or self-maintained thought. Regions of medial area 10 support processes related to the former, whilst areas of lateral area 10 support processes that enable the latter. Three lines of evidence for this 'gateway hypothesis' are presented. First, we demonstrate the predicted patterns of activation in area 10 during the performance of new tests designed to stress the hypothetical function. Second, we demonstrate area 10 activations during the performance of established functions (prospective memory, context memory), which should hypothetically involve the proposed attentional system. Third, we examine predictions about behaviour-activation patterns within rostral PFC that follow from the hypothesis. We show with meta-analysis of neuroimaging investigations that these predictions are supported across a wide variety of tasks, thus establishing a general principle for functional imaging studies of this large brain region. We then show that while the gateway hypothesis accommodates a large range of findings relating to the functional organization of area 10 along a medial-lateral dimension, there are further principles relating to other dimensions and functions. In particular, there is a functional dissociation between the anterior medial area 10, which supports processes required for SO attending, and the caudal medial area 10, which supports processes relating to mentalizing.