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Anterior prefrontal cortex: insights into function from anatomy and neuroimaging

Key Points

  • The prefrontal cortex is essential for the control and organization of behaviour. Although progress has been made in understanding the functions of some regions within the frontal lobes, the most anterior sector (the aPFC) is one of the least well understood regions of the human brain.

  • Recent studies using functional neuroimaging in humans have demonstrated that the aPFC is activated during many types of task, including problem solving, memory retrieval, 'prospective memory', memory for source and context, 'branching' and the reallocation of attention.

  • This ubiquity indicates that if the aPFC has a function, then it is one that can be applied to the solution of problems across multiple domains, yet must be specific enough to explain those studies in which this region is not activated.

  • Here, we use an account consistent with the connectional and cellular anatomy of the aPFC to explain the key features of existing models and to try and accommodate their results within a common theoretical framework. The model indicates that the coordination of information processing and information transfer between multiple cognitive operations within supramodal cortex is an important aspect of aPFC function.

  • Crucially, the cellular properties of neurons in the aPFC are better suited than other comparable areas to integrating their inputs, providing an anatomical basis for such an explanation. Moreover, consideration of the functional neuroimaging literature confirms that aPFC is almost always activated when the solutions of two or more discrete cognitive operations need to be integrated in the pursuit of a more general behavioural goal.

  • This account predicts that specific computational resources in the aPFC will be devoted to the integration of sub-problem solutions, over and above the processing that is required for the individual solutions themselves.

Abstract

The anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC), or Brodmann area 10, is one of the least well understood regions of the human brain. Work with non-human primates has provided almost no indications as to the function of this area. In recent years, investigators have attempted to integrate findings from functional neuroimaging studies in humans to generate models that might describe the contribution that this area makes to cognition. In all cases, however, such explanations are either too tied to a given task to be plausible or too general to be theoretically useful. Here, we use an account that is consistent with the connectional and cellular anatomy of the aPFC to explain the key features of existing models within a common theoretical framework. The results indicate a specific role for this region in integrating the outcomes of two or more separate cognitive operations in the pursuit of a higher behavioural goal.

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Figure 1: Brodmann area (BA) 10.
Figure 2: The right prefrontal cortex of in human (left) and macaque (right) brains represented as flattened surfaces.

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Acknowledgements

N.R. was funded by a grant from the Medical Research Council to P. M. Matthews (FMRIB Centre, Oxford). We thank K. Christoff for helpful discussion during the preparatory stages of this manuscript.

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Glossary

BRODMANN AREA

(BA). Korbinian Brodmann (1868–1918) was an anatomist who divided the cerebral cortex into numbered subdivisions on the basis of cell arrangements, types and staining properties (for example, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex contains subdivisions, including BA 46, BA 9 and others). Modern derivatives of his maps are commonly used as the reference system for discussion of brain-imaging findings.

TOWER OF LONDON TEST

A widely used neuropsychological test of planning and problem solving. Participants move a set of three balls between three rods (or 'pockets') to match a separate goal arrangement.

RAVEN'S PROGRESSIVE MATRICES

A non-verbal test of inductive reasoning in which participants are required to discern the relationship between complex shapes, usually in more than one dimension.

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Ramnani, N., Owen, A. Anterior prefrontal cortex: insights into function from anatomy and neuroimaging. Nat Rev Neurosci 5, 184–194 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn1343

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