Section on the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory, Laboratory of Neuropsychology, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-4415, USA.
Neuropsychologia. 2010 Jul;48(8):2385-405. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.01.011. Epub 2010 Jan 25.
Despite a half century of development, the orthodox monkey model of human amnesia needs improvement, in part because of two problems inherent in animal models of advanced human cognition. First, animal models are perforce comparative, but the principles of comparative and evolutionary biology have not featured prominently in developing the orthodox model. Second, no one understands the relationship between human consciousness and cognition in other animals, but the orthodox model implicitly assumes a close correspondence. If we treat these two difficulties with the deference they deserve, monkeys can tell us a lot about human amnesia and memory. Three future contributions seem most likely: (1) an improved monkey model, one refocused on the hippocampus rather than on the medial temporal lobe as a whole; (2) a better understanding of cortical areas unique to primates, especially the granular prefrontal cortex; and (3), taking the two together, insight into prefrontal-hippocampal interactions. We propose that interactions among the granular prefrontal areas create the kind of cross-domain, analogical and self-referential knowledge that underlies advanced cognition in modern humans. When these products of frontal-lobe function interact with the hippocampus, and its ancestral function in navigation, what emerges is the human ability to embed ourselves in scenarios-real and imagined, self-generated and received-thereby creating a coherent, conscious life experience.
尽管经过了半个世纪的发展，正统的猴子人类遗忘症模型仍需要改进，部分原因是先进人类认知的动物模型存在两个固有问题。首先，动物模型必然是比较性的，但比较和进化生物学的原理在发展正统模型时并没有突出。其次，没有人了解其他动物的人类意识和认知之间的关系，但正统模型隐含地假定了密切的对应关系。如果我们对这两个困难给予应有的尊重，猴子可以告诉我们很多关于人类遗忘症和记忆的知识。未来似乎有三个最有可能的贡献：（1）一个改进的猴子模型，一个重新聚焦于海马体而不是整个内侧颞叶的模型；（2）更好地理解灵长类动物特有的皮质区域，特别是颗粒状前额叶皮层；（3）将两者结合起来，深入了解前额叶-海马体的相互作用。我们提出，颗粒状前额叶区域之间的相互作用产生了那种跨领域的、类比的和自我参照的知识，这种知识是现代人类高级认知的基础。当这些额叶功能的产物与海马体及其在导航中的祖先功能相互作用时，就会出现人类将自己嵌入场景的能力——真实的和想象的、自我生成的和接收的——从而创造出一个连贯的、有意识的生活体验。
