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Is the Prefrontal Cortex Necessary for Delay Task Performance? Evidence from Lesion and fMRI Data

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 March 2006

MARK D'ESPOSITO ,
JEFFREY W. COONEY ,
ADAM GAZZALEY ,
SASHA E.B. GIBBS  and
BRADLEY R. POSTLE
MARK D'ESPOSITO
Affiliation:
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
JEFFREY W. COONEY
Affiliation:
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
ADAM GAZZALEY
Affiliation:
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
SASHA E.B. GIBBS
Affiliation:
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California
BRADLEY R. POSTLE
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin
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Abstract

Although the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is consistently found to be associated with various working memory processes, the necessity of the PFC for such processes remains unclear. To elucidate PFC contributions to storage and rehearsal/maintenance processes engaged during verbal working memory function, we assessed behavior of patients with lesions to the left or right lateral PFC, and neural activity of healthy young subjects during fMRI scanning, during performance of working memory tasks. We found that PFC lesions did not affect storage processes—which is consistent with the notion that posterior cortical networks can support simple retention of information. We also found that PFC lesions did not affect rehearsal/maintenance processes, which was in contrast to our finding that healthy subjects performing a verbal delayed recognition task showed bilateral PFC activation. These combined imaging and behavioral data suggest that working memory rehearsal/maintenance processes may depend on both hemispheres, which may have implications for recovery of function and development of rehabilitation therapies after frontal injury. (JINS, 2006, 12, 248–260.)

Keywords

Short-term memoryDelayed-recall taskDelayed-recognition taskFrontal lobeCognitionStrokefMRI
Type
SYMPOSIUM
Information
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , March 2006 , pp. 248 - 260
Copyright
© 2006 The International Neuropsychological Society

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