Stern C E, Passingham R E
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK.
Behav Brain Res. 1994 Mar 31;61(1):9-21. doi: 10.1016/0166-4328(94)90003-5.
A behavioural comparison was made between six unoperated control monkeys and six monkeys which received bilateral ibotenic acid lesions of the nucleus accumbens. Two of the control monkeys were subsequently given bilateral lesions of the anterior cingulate and medial frontal cortex (areas 24, 25 and 32) and were retested on the behavioural tasks. The NA lesioned monkeys, but not the anterior cingulate lesioned monkeys, were significantly impaired on a hoarding task in which they were required to remove 18 peanuts from their shells and store them in their cheek pouches. These same monkeys were not impaired when the nuts were presented without shells. Evidence is provided which suggests that this deficit is not motivational or due to gross motor impairments. A second task in which the animals were required to search through four boxes to retrieve food revealed a decrease in the tendency for the NA and cingulate lesioned animals to use an organized pattern of searching. Both groups were found to return to a previously opened box more often than controls. However, neither group showed signs of perseverative behaviour. Data from a ten-box version of this task suggest that these return errors were not due to a decrease in working memory. Together these studies suggest that both the NA and the anterior cingulate cortex contribute to the ability to organize behaviour temporally and spatially.
对六只未做手术的对照猴子和六只接受了伏隔核双侧鹅膏蕈氨酸损伤的猴子进行了行为比较。随后，对其中两只对照猴子进行了前扣带回和内侧前额叶皮质（24区、25区和32区）的双侧损伤，并在行为任务上重新进行测试。在一项囤积任务中，伏隔核损伤的猴子（而非前扣带回损伤的猴子）表现出显著受损，该任务要求它们从壳中取出18颗花生并储存在颊囊中。当坚果不带壳呈现时，这些猴子并未受损。有证据表明，这种缺陷并非由动机问题或严重运动障碍所致。第二项任务要求动物在四个盒子中搜寻以获取食物，结果显示，伏隔核和扣带回损伤的动物采用有组织搜寻模式的倾向有所下降。两组动物被发现比对照组更频繁地回到之前打开过的盒子。然而，两组均未表现出持续性行为的迹象。来自该任务十盒版本的数据表明，这些返回错误并非由于工作记忆下降所致。这些研究共同表明，伏隔核和前扣带回皮质均有助于在时间和空间上组织行为的能力。
