La Camera Giancarlo, Bouret Sebastien, Richmond Barry J
Department of Neurobiology and Behavior, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, United States.
Program in Neuroscience, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, United States.
Front Neurosci. 2018 Mar 19;12:165. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2018.00165. eCollection 2018.
The ability to learn and follow abstract rules relies on intact prefrontal regions including the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) and the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Here, we investigate the specific roles of these brain regions in learning rules that depend critically on the formation of abstract concepts as opposed to simpler input-output associations. To this aim, we tested monkeys with bilateral removals of either LPFC or OFC on a rapidly learned task requiring the formation of the abstract concept of same vs. different. While monkeys with OFC removals were significantly slower than controls at both acquiring and reversing the concept-based rule, monkeys with LPFC removals were not impaired in acquiring the task, but were significantly slower at rule reversal. Neither group was impaired in the acquisition or reversal of a delayed visual cue-outcome association task without a concept-based rule. These results suggest that OFC is essential for the implementation of a concept-based rule, whereas LPFC seems essential for its modification once established.
学习和遵循抽象规则的能力依赖于包括外侧前额叶皮质（LPFC）和眶额皮质（OFC）在内的完整前额叶区域。在此，我们研究这些脑区在学习规则中的特定作用，这些规则关键依赖于抽象概念的形成，而非更简单的输入-输出关联。为此，我们在一项快速学习任务中测试了双侧切除LPFC或OFC的猴子，该任务要求形成相同与不同的抽象概念。虽然切除OFC的猴子在获取和反转基于概念的规则方面均显著慢于对照组，但切除LPFC的猴子在获取任务时未受损，但在规则反转时显著较慢。在没有基于概念的规则的延迟视觉线索-结果关联任务的获取或反转中，两组均未受损。这些结果表明OFC对于基于概念的规则的实施至关重要，而LPFC似乎对于该规则一旦建立后的修改至关重要。
