Bor D, Duncan J, Owen A M
MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge, UK.
Scand J Psychol. 2001 Jul;42(3):217-24. doi: 10.1111/1467-9450.00232.
While the importance of the prefrontal cortex for "higher-order" cognitive functions is largely undisputed, no consensus has been reached regarding the fractionation of functions within this region. Several recent functional neuroimaging studies have suggested that the mid-ventrolateral frontal cortex may play an important role in various aspects of human memory. Thus, similar patterns of activation have been observed in this region during analogous spatial, verbal and visual span tasks. In the present study, however, activation was observed in a more dorsolateral region of the lateral frontal cortex during a modified version of the spatial span task, which differed only in the spatial configuration of the array employed. The results of a supplementary behavioral study, designed to investigate this effect further, suggest that in spatial memory tasks certain stimulus configurations may encourage subjects to adopt mnemonic strategies, which may depend upon dorsolateral, rather than ventrolateral, regions of the frontal cortex. These findings shed further light on the functional relationship between dorsal and ventral regions of the lateral frontal cortex and, more specifically, how the "executive" processes assumed to be dependent upon these regions might contribute to aspects of human memory.
虽然前额叶皮质对于“高阶”认知功能的重要性在很大程度上是无可争议的，但关于该区域内功能的细分尚未达成共识。最近的几项功能性神经成像研究表明，腹外侧前额叶皮质中部可能在人类记忆的各个方面发挥重要作用。因此，在类似的空间、言语和视觉广度任务中，该区域观察到了相似的激活模式。然而，在本研究中，在空间广度任务的一个修改版本中，外侧前额叶皮质的一个更背外侧区域观察到了激活，该版本仅在所使用阵列的空间配置上有所不同。一项旨在进一步研究这种效应的补充行为学研究结果表明，在空间记忆任务中，某些刺激配置可能会促使受试者采用记忆策略，这可能依赖于额叶皮质的背外侧而非腹外侧区域。这些发现进一步揭示了外侧前额叶皮质背侧和腹侧区域之间的功能关系，更具体地说，假定依赖于这些区域的“执行”过程如何可能对人类记忆的各个方面做出贡献。
