Orr Joseph M, Smolker Harry R, Banich Marie T
Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America.
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, Colorado, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2015 May 6;10(5):e0124797. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0124797. eCollection 2015.
The goal of the current study was to examine the pattern of anatomical connectivity of the human frontal pole so as to inform theories of function of the frontal pole, perhaps one of the least understood region of the human brain. Rather than simply parcellating the frontal pole into subregions, we focused on examining the brain regions to which the frontal pole is anatomically and functionally connected. While the current findings provided support for previous work suggesting the frontal pole is connected to higher-order sensory association cortex, we found novel evidence suggesting that the frontal pole in humans is connected to posterior visual cortex. Furthermore, we propose a functional framework that incorporates these anatomical connections with existing cognitive theories of the functional organization of the frontal pole. In addition to a previously discussed medial-lateral distinction, we propose a dorsal-ventral gradient based on the information the frontal pole uses to guide behavior. We propose that dorsal regions are connected to other prefrontal regions that process goals and action plans, medial regions are connected to other brain regions that monitor action outcomes and motivate behaviors, and ventral regions connect to regions that process information about stimuli, values, and emotion. By incorporating information across these different levels of information, the frontal pole can effectively guide goal-directed behavior.
当前研究的目标是研究人类额极的解剖连接模式，以便为额极功能理论提供依据，额极可能是人类大脑中最不为人所了解的区域之一。我们没有简单地将额极划分为子区域，而是专注于研究与额极在解剖学和功能上相连的脑区。虽然当前的研究结果支持了之前的研究工作，即额极与高阶感觉联合皮层相连，但我们发现了新的证据，表明人类的额极与视觉后皮层相连。此外，我们提出了一个功能框架，将这些解剖连接与现有的额极功能组织认知理论相结合。除了之前讨论过的内侧-外侧区分，我们还基于额极用于指导行为的信息提出了一个背侧-腹侧梯度。我们提出，背侧区域与处理目标和行动计划的其他前额叶区域相连，内侧区域与监测行动结果并激发行为的其他脑区相连，腹侧区域与处理有关刺激、价值和情感信息的区域相连。通过整合这些不同层次的信息，额极可以有效地指导目标导向行为。
