The human frontal cortex helps mediate working memory, a system that is used for temporary storage and manipulation of information and that is involved in many higher cognitive functions. Working memory includes two components: short-term storage (on the order of seconds) and executive processes that operate on the contents of storage. Recently, these two components have been investigated in fu...

The frontal lobes are widely implicated in logical reasoning. Recent neuroimaging studies suggest that frontal lobe involvement in reasoning is asymmetric (L>R) and increases with the presence of familiar, meaningful content in the reasoning situation. However, neuroimaging data can only provide sufficiency criteria. To determine the necessity of prefrontal involvement in logical reasoning, we ...

Frontal lobe syndromes, better termed as frontal network systems, are relatively unique in that they may manifest from almost any brain region, due to their widespread connectivity. The understandings of the manifold expressions seen clinically are helped by considering evolutionary origins, the contribution of the state-dependent ascending monoaminergic neurotransmitter systems, and cerebral c...

Executive control requires controlling the initiation of movements, judging the consequences of actions, and adjusting performance accordingly. We have investigated the role of different areas in the frontal lobe in executive control expressed by macaque monkeys performing a saccade stop signal task. Certain neurons in the frontal eye field respond to visual stimuli, and others control the prod...

receipt of rewarding stimuli, whereas a negative evaluation would include either omission of an expected reward or delivery of an aversive stimulus (Rolls, 1999). Sensitivity to reinforcement allows an organism to act in accordance with regularities in the environment. This Success requires deciding among alternatives, con-sensitivity can be expressed through mechanisms intrin-trolling the init...

The new functional neuroimaging techniques, PET and functional MRI (fMRI), offer sufficient experimental flexibility and spatial resolution to explore the functional neuroanatomical bases of different memory stages and processes. They have had a particular impact on our understanding of the role of the frontal cortex in memory processing. We review the insights that have been gained, and attemp...

Although this book is difficult to read and even more difficult to review, it represents a remarkable amount of work in a difficult field, yet it may be that the semantic difficulties imposed added to a tendency toward obscure writing will greatly restrict the influence of the book. Mr. Halstead has gathered together a battery of tests, most of which he devised himself, which appear to be neuro...

Previous research with older adults suggests that the frontal lobes and the medial temporal lobes play an important role in recognition memory. The goal of this study was to investigate the impact of high/low frontal lobe and medial temporal lobe status in younger adults’ recognition memory performance. Twenty-four college-aged women completed a neuropsychological battery and a recognition memo...

Chess is a game that involves many aspects of high level cognition and requires sophisticated problem solving skills. However, there is little understanding of the neural basis of chess cognition. This study employed functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to identify cortical areas that are active during the analysis of chess positions compared with a spatial task with matched visual stim...