Material-specific interference control is dissociable and lateralized in human prefrontal cortex
Neuropsychologia. 2014-11-01; 64: 310-319
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2014.09.024
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Geddes MR(1), Tsuchida A(2), Ashley V(3), Swick D(4), Fellows LK(2).
Author information:
(1)Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery,
McGill University, Montréal, Canada H3A 2B4; Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, 43 Vassar Street, Office
4033-D, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Brigham and Women׳s Hospital, Division of
Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, Harvard University, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Electronic address: .
(2)Montreal Neurological Institute, Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery,
McGill University, Montréal, Canada H3A 2B4.
(3)VA Northern California Health Care System, Martinez, CA 94553, USA.
(4)VA Northern California Health Care System, Martinez, CA 94553, USA;
Department of Neurology, University of California, Davis, CA 95817, USA.
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) plays a key role in the ability to pursue a
particular goal in the face of competing alternatives, an ability that is
fundamental to higher-order human behavior. Whether this region contributes to
cognitive control through material-general mechanisms, or through hemispheric
specialization of component abilities, remains unclear. Here we show that left
or right ventrolateral PFC damage in humans leads to doubly dissociable deficits
in two classic tests of interference control. Patients with damage centered on
left ventrolateral prefrontal cortex had exaggerated interference effects in the
color-word Stroop, but not the Eriksen flanker task, whereas patients with
damage affecting right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex showed the opposite
pattern. Thus, effective interference resolution requires either right or left
lateral PFC, depending on the nature of the task. This finding supports a
lateralized, material-specific account of cognitive control in humans.
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