Gaffan D, Harrison S
Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University, UK.
Brain. 1991 Oct;114 ( Pt 5):2133-44. doi: 10.1093/brain/114.5.2133.
Monkeys (Macaca mulatta) learned preoperatively to associate each of 6 auditory stimuli with 1 of 6 visual stimuli. Ablation of the left prefrontal cortex in a group of 3 monkeys produced a substantial impairment in performance of the task, though performance was still above chance. Ablation of the right prefrontal cortex in a second group of 3 monkeys was without effect. Subsequently the superior temporal gyrus (auditory cortex) was removed in each animal unilaterally in the hemisphere contralateral to the existing prefrontal ablation. Ablation of the left auditory cortex produced a severe impairment, but ablation of the right auditory cortex was without effect. Finally, forebrain commissurotomy in the animals with left prefrontal and right temporal ablation reduced their performance virtually to chance level. These results are consistent with previous findings indicating a left hemisphere specialization for audition in the monkey, and they give strong support to the idea, derived from previous experiments on difficult associative learning in the monkey, that auditory-visual association depends on a convergence of auditory and visual information in the prefrontal cortex.
猴子（恒河猴）在术前学会了将6种听觉刺激中的每一种与6种视觉刺激中的一种建立联系。在一组3只猴子中切除左前额叶皮层后，任务表现出现了显著受损，不过表现仍高于随机水平。在第二组3只猴子中切除右前额叶皮层则没有效果。随后，在每只动物中，在与现有的前额叶切除相对侧的半球单侧切除颞上回（听觉皮层）。切除左听觉皮层导致严重受损，但切除右听觉皮层没有效果。最后，对有左前额叶和右颞叶切除的动物进行前脑连合切开术，使它们的表现几乎降至随机水平。这些结果与之前的研究结果一致，表明猴子的左半球在听觉方面具有特异性，并且它们有力地支持了源自之前对猴子困难联想学习实验的观点，即听觉-视觉关联依赖于前额叶皮层中听觉和视觉信息的汇聚。
