Passingham R E
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 1985 Feb 13;308(1135):101-11. doi: 10.1098/rstb.1985.0013.
Monkeys have more highly developed brains and are more intelligent than rats; yet rats learn some tasks as efficiently as monkeys. For example, rats are as quick at discovering which of two doors hides food or how to open the doors. Presumably tasks of this sort do not greatly tax cortical associative mechanisms since the animals have only to cumulate facts about objects. It is argued that cortical mechanisms are crucial for the ability to relate together information that is presented at different times or in different places. After removal of parts of frontal cortex monkeys can still associate cues that are presented together but they are poor at relating cues that are presented apart.
猴子的大脑比大鼠发育得更高级，也比大鼠更聪明；然而，大鼠在学习某些任务时与猴子一样高效。例如，大鼠能同样迅速地发现两扇门中哪扇门后藏有食物，或者如何打开门。据推测，这类任务对皮质联想机制的要求不高，因为动物只需积累有关物体的事实。有人认为，皮质机制对于将在不同时间或不同地点呈现的信息联系起来的能力至关重要。切除部分额叶皮质后，猴子仍然能够将同时呈现的线索联系起来，但它们在联系分开呈现的线索方面表现不佳。
