Robertson A
Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 1989 Summer-Fall;13(2-3):163-70. doi: 10.1016/s0149-7634(89)80026-0.
Electrical stimulation of the major divisions of the prefrontal cortex, the mediodorsal and sulcal areas, can serve as a reinforcing stimulus. Studies of self-stimulation of the prefrontal cortex have produced behavioral, anatomical and pharmacological evidence that the substrate of these rewarding effects can be dissociated from that subserving self-stimulation of ventral diencephalic sites such as the lateral hypothalamus. Other studies indicate that within the prefrontal cortex itself, self-stimulation of the medial and sulcal divisions can be attributed to dissociable processes. These observations suggest the existence of multiple, largely autonomous prefrontal subsystems involved in reinforcement. This raises the question of the functional significance of such systems, and of their organization. An approach to this problem is to consider the relationship between the behavioral functions of the prefrontal divisions and the characteristics of stimulation-induced reward obtained at each site. Studies of the effects of restricted prefrontal lesions indicate that the medial and sulcal divisions can be dissociated according to their involvement in the control of distinct types of sensory and motor events. Further experiments indicate that damage to each division causes selective deficits in the learning of stimulus-reinforcer and response-reinforcer relations, depending in part on the nature of the reinforcing event. Conditioning experiments further show that the rewarding effects produced by stimulation of these areas are preferentially associated to sensory events which correspond to the functional specialization of each division. These data are interpreted to suggest that different rewarding events and/or different attributes of rewarding stimuli are processed by distinct systems which are reflected by the organization of dissociable self-stimulation pathways.
对前额叶皮质主要分区（即内侧背侧区和沟回区）进行电刺激可作为一种强化刺激。对前额叶皮质自我刺激的研究已得出行为学、解剖学和药理学证据，表明这些奖赏效应的基质可与支持下丘脑外侧等腹侧间脑部位自我刺激的基质相分离。其他研究表明，在前额叶皮质内部，内侧区和沟回区的自我刺激可归因于不同的过程。这些观察结果表明存在多个在很大程度上自主的参与强化的前额叶子系统。这就提出了此类系统的功能意义及其组织方式的问题。解决这个问题的一种方法是考虑前额叶各分区的行为功能与在每个部位获得的刺激诱导奖赏特征之间的关系。对局限性前额叶损伤影响的研究表明，内侧区和沟回区可根据它们对不同类型感觉和运动事件控制的参与程度而区分开来。进一步的实验表明，对每个分区的损伤会在刺激-强化物和反应-强化物关系的学习中导致选择性缺陷，这部分取决于强化事件的性质。条件反射实验进一步表明，刺激这些区域产生的奖赏效应优先与对应于每个分区功能特化的感觉事件相关联。这些数据被解释为表明不同的奖赏事件和/或奖赏刺激的不同属性由不同的系统处理，这通过可分离的自我刺激通路的组织得以体现。
